


Just Family Things

by theotpeffect



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, FACE Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, break ups
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-14 04:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 54,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2178462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theotpeffect/pseuds/theotpeffect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The married couple Francis Bonnefoy and Arthur Kirkland have adopted two baby boys Alfred and Matthew. Of course every family has its ups and downs and this household is no different! This story follows the lives of this little family from the kids' baby days to the angsty and troublesome teenage years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got this from a Tumblr post and it was just so adorable that I couldn't resist writing about it. I saw it on iFunny though so I don't have a link to it. But all of the chapters are based off of points that this person made. Anyway, this is my version that's a little bit more in depth, I hope you like it! :)

Arthur Kirkland and his husband Francis Bonnefoy shuffle into their house. They awkwardly bang around in their narrow hallway that leads from their front door to their living room. They have large baskets held out in front of them to keep the precious cargo from smacking against the walls. Arthur marches into the living room and gently sets the basket onto the couch. Francis follows his lead and both of them scoop out a baby from their baskets. Soon they're holding two cooing baby boys in their arms. They beam at each other over their squirming bundles and come as close together as they can. They touch their foreheads together and grin.

"We finally did it," Arthur said softly.

Francis lifts his head just enough to press his lips to Arthur's forehead, "Oui, we did it."

Francis returns to his original position. They had adopted two boys named Alfred and Matthew. Alfred is trying to grab at his brother's face.

Francis and Arthur had found them when deciding to take the big step and adopt. Alfred and Matthew were biologically related twins, which Arthur thought was a good thing because they could feel like actual brothers. Arthur and Francis had found them in the system when they were looking for children that they might want and they fell in love immediately. They filled out all of the papers that were necessary and today was the first day that they could bring them home.

Arthur lifts his finger and places it in Alfred's tiny, grasping hand. Alfred squeezes as tightly as his little muscles will allow. He still reaches for Matthew with his other hand.

Francis chuckles, "It seems that he's going to be quite a handful."

"And Matthew seems like he'll be nice to his daddies and be calm for them. But his silence is a little worrying is it normal for him to be this quiet?" Arthur says.

"I'm sure he's fine, mon amour," Francis says and lifts his head, "We should put them to bed."

Arthur hugs Alfred to his chest as tightly as he can without hurting him, "I don't know. I feel like if I put them down it'll turn out to be a dream."

Francis nods in understanding, "Then let's at least hold them in their nursery."

So they do. They hold onto their children for a very long time before becoming tired and going to bed. They embrace there, smiling, feeling like they're flying. Neither of them can believe that they have taken this big step. They're so incredibly happy that at times it didn't feel real.

* * *

  This is can't be real, Francis thought to himself. He was dropping off Alfred and Matthew off for their first day of school. Arthur had come with him and they had walked their children to the front doors of the school. Francis wasn't ready to let his babies go off to school, they were growing up too fast and based off of Arthur's tight grip on his hand he was sure Arthur felt the same. Arthur let go of Francis' hand and crouched down.

"You two be good okay?" Arthur said. He hugged both of his boys in turn and let Francis do the same.

"Bye daddy, bye papa!" Al and Matt said simultaneously before running off to join their class. Francis visibly sagged and leaned against his husband as he watched his children go. Once they were out of sight Francis buried his face into Arthur's shoulder. He groaned.

"I'm not ready for this," he moaned. Arthur rubbed reassuring circles onto his husband's back. Francis sighed and straightened again. He had to get a hold of himself. They had to grow up some time and he had to keep his head clear for work. He had been a stay at home dad until just a week ago. He had never been apart from his boys other than to sleep. He could already feel a big part of him missing them. He sighed and slowly walked away with Arthur, tossing looks over his shoulder at points.

Francis and Arthur both had an uneventful day at their jobs. Francis only worked part time so he was able to get off of work and pick up the boys when school ended. Arthur still had to work however and would be there until five o'clock.

Francis stood in the same place that he had stood when he said goodbye to the boys. He waited eagerly for their familiar faces to come into view. Alfred came bounding up to Francis looking happy. Francis smiled.

"Did you have a good first day?" Francis asked hugging the boy clinging to his leg. Alfred bounced up and down excitedly.

"Yeah, I met this boy named Tony and we became friends!" Alfred exclaimed.

"That's wonderful!" Francis said. He liked that Al was making friends, that was a good thing. 

Matthew came up behind Alfred, looking upset. Uh oh. It seems that Matt didn't have as good a day as Alfred clearly did. Francis worried about what had happened. Was Matt being bullied? Was he not getting along with other people? Did he get into a fight? These thoughts flew through Francis' head and he had to stop himself from panicking. He looked over Matt. He didn't seem to be visibly hurt.

"Matt?" Francis said tentatively. He crouched so he stood face to face with his son, "Is everything alright?"

Matthew pouted and tossed his head to the side. Apparently he didn't want to talk about it yet. Francis sighed and grabbed both of his son's hands. Matt seemed to calm down a little bit at the feeling of his father's hand. Alfred chattered on about his first day and Francis listened to him. He still worried for Matt and he nearly lost his concentration on Al's talking. But he managed to keep his thoughts in order. After four years he had nearly perfected dividing his attention between the boys. 

Matthew stayed silent but this wasn't anything new. Matt was a silent child and he much preferred sitting quietly and reading a book. On the other hand his brother could hardly ever stop talking. 

Francis strapped them into the car before speeding off towards home. He had decided that he would confront Matt on his bad mood when they got to the house. The car ride was filled with Al's voice. Francis was glad that at least one of his sons was liking the kindergarten life.

Once home Francis unstrapped the boys and Alfred flew out of the car and to the front door of the house, waiting for his father to unlock the door. He was just a bundle of energy. Matthew walked at the same pace as his father. His little hands were wrapped tightly around the straps of his backpack. He was still very upset. Francis jiggled the keys in the lock once he got to the door and let them all inside. Of course Alfred zoomed inside and went straight for his toys. Matt trudged inside and tossed his backpack down.

"Matthew," Francis said softly. He sat on the couch and patted the spot beside him. Matt jumped into the seat and stared hard at the ground. "Tell me what's wrong mon petite."

Matthew took a deep breath, "It-it's just that, just that, just that the other kids and-and me we had to get in groups. And, and, and they. And they."

Francis tried not to let himself let out a small smile. It's not that Matt being distressed was funny. It was just his mannerisms when he was angry that were adorable. He clenched his tiny fists against his knees and scowled at the ground. He even shook slightly, like he was going to just explode with rage. When he got like this he could barely get any words out. 

Francis pulled him into his side and said kindly, "Use your words."

"Those- those stupid-heads. Th-they- they totally ignore me when- when I talk," Matt said and pouted his lower lip.

Francis squeezed his shoulder, "Oh Matty. I'm sorry."

Matt jumped off of the couch and stomped around the coffee table. He lifted his knees high and let his feet hit the ground hard. He stopped when he was in front of Francis, the coffee table dividing the space between them. Matt crossed his arms and scowled again.

" _You_ don't have to say sorry papa, those dumbos have to," Matt said and paced, still stomping in the same manner as before.

"Well why don't you tell them that they're being stupid-heads and that they should apologize?" Francis suggested.

Matt stopped his tantrum for a second. He nodded determinedly. He was frowning as he slapped his feet against the stairs loudly, making it very clear that he was still supposed to be mad. Francis felt that he should leave him alone and let him cool down. Maybe he would buy him a stuffed bear to get him to feel better. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the Halloween season and little Alfred has just caught a glimpse of something very scary!

It is the beginning of October. Horror movies are being mass produced and the Halloween spirit is revealing itself. Every commercial break has to have at least one trailer for a horror movie and you can't go onto the internet without being bombarded with ads about haunted houses and costumes. Francis and Arthur know very well that their little Alfred is going to be scared out of his mind for the entire month, maybe even for a while after that. He had always been restless around this time of year, even before he could fully understand the commercials that depicted typical Halloween themes.

Alfred seemed to tough it out for the first week that these scary things took a hold of society. Francis and Arthur were relieved and began to think that maybe, just maybe, Alfred had grown out of being scared so easily. However, lying in bed one night, exhausted after a long day they were proven wrong.

Francis and Arthur were snugly fit into each others' arms when Alfred slowly opened their door and tip-toed into his fathers' room. Francis stirred at the noise of the door creaking and groggily looked up towards the noise. All he could see was a small silhouette that stood in the doorway. The hallway light had made it too bright for Francis to actually make out anything beyond the shadowy figure.

"Daddy, papa, can I sleep in here tonight?" Alfred asked. Arthur moved at the distressed tone of his son's voice.

Arthur scooted away from Francis to create a small space between them and lifted the covers for Alfred. "Alright, come on."

Alfred closed the door behind him and scurried to their bed, shooting glances around the dark room. He jumped into the big bed and squirmed upwards until he was between his dads. He slipped under the covers and brought them to just under his nose. He squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face into Arthur's chest. Arthur laid back down, holding Alfred to him. Francis scooted in a little closer and wrapped his arms around his husband and son. Arthur and he exchanged looks, silently communicating that they should talk to Alfred about this.

"What did you see, mon petite?" Francis asked. Alfred just whimpered and shook his head. His fathers' knew that the only reason he didn't want to share why he was scared was because he was doing something he wasn't supposed to.

"Did you sneak onto the computer when you were supposed to be sleeping again?" Arthur asked sternly.

"Nooooo," Alfred said

"Tell the truth," Arthur scolded.

Alfred stayed silent, knowing that he had been caught. Arthur sighed and rubbed at his son's side.

"We'll talk about this later. For now, just tell us what's scaring you."

"It-it was awful!" Alfred exclaimed and shook in his parents' arms.

"What was?" Francis coaxed gently.

"I was on YouTube and this commercial came up for a scary movie, but I got away from it as fast as I could! But then... then the door shut behind me and someone started talking! It must have been a ghost cause the voice was saying that it was going to kidnap me! It was scary! What made it worse was that the ghost sounded like Matt!" Alfred explained in a rush.

Arthur and Francis exchanged another look. They both knew what had really happened.

"It's alright Al," Francis said soothingly.

"It seems like your brother has been pulling pranks," Arthur said.

Alfred stopped quaking, "...What?"

"I hate to break it to you sweetie, but Matthew was pranking you," Arthur explained.

There was a moment of silence. Suddenly, Alfred threw off his fathers' arms and leaped from the bed. He threw open the bedroom door and rushed outside. Another door slammed open and then there was shouting. Arthur and Francis bolted upright at the shouting and hurried from bed when Matthew let out a small shriek. The two fathers rushed into Matthews room, where the sounds had come from. There they had found Alfred and Matthew wrestling on the floor. Arthur rushed forward and lifted Al into his arms.

"Wh-wh-what's wr-wrong with-with-with you!" Matt exclaimed angrily. 

"What's wrong with  _you?_ Why would you even  _pretend_  to be something as scary as a ghost?" Al retorted and struggled to get out of his father's arms. Francis came forward and helped Matthew back to his feet. Matthew's lips twitched up and down as he was trying to hide his smile.

Arthur tightened his grip slightly, "Alfred, papa is going to take you back to bed. I'll only let go of you if you promise not to attack your brother again."

Al calmed himself down and breathed out heavily. Arthur released him and Francis grabbed his hand. He led him out the door and back to their bedroom. Arthur was sure they would be fine, Francis was better at using calming words than he was. 

Arthur made sure that Matthew was okay before scolding him and tucking him into bed. Arthur came back out into the hallway and made his way back to his bedroom. He shut off the hallway light behind him and came into his room to find Alfred resting his head on Francis' chest. Alfred was chattering away happily. It seemed that he had calmed down.

Arthur slipped under the covers and turned on his side so that he was facing the beds other occupants. Alfred was carrying on about how he would get back at Matthew for what he did. Francis occasionally reminded him that he would get in trouble if he did such things to his brother. Alfred soon gave up on voicing his plots and turned to talking about his friends. At one point Francis groaned.

"Mon petite, would you  _please_ try and go to sleep. Daddy and I are very tired, we can't stay up and talk all night."

"Okay," Alfred said a little sadly and closed his eyes. After a little while he started tossing and turning and whimpering.

"Alfred what's wrong now?" Arthur mumbled.

"I'm still scared, I can't forget about that commercial that I had to watch before!" Alfred said.

"It's alright Al it was just a movie," Arthur said soothingly. 

"But it said it was based off of a true story!" Alfred argued.

"They just say that to make it seem scary, none of it is actually real," Francis explained patiently.

Alfred was silent for a few blessed minutes. But then he spoke again, "I wonder what other movies actually happened."

"We'll look it up tomorrow, but only if you fall asleep right now," Arthur said.

"Okay!" Alfred said happily. Another minute of silence. "It would be cool if The Avengers actually happened."

"Yes, yes it would," Francis said, maybe a little too curtly. "Now I'm  _begging_ you please go to sleep Alfred."

"Okay," Alfred said and yawned. The noise gave his fathers' hope that he was going to go to sleep soon. But no such luck. He continued talking for hours before finally falling asleep. This allowed Arthur and Francis a few precious hours of sleep before they had to get up and start another day.

Their sleep deprivation lasted the entire month and went well into November. Only in November were they able to get Alfred to be brave enough to sleep in his own room again, ghosts and monsters completely forgotten.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Francis loves to cook but occasionally he's too tired to get more out than something simple. However, little nine year old Alfred seems to enjoy the simple things, much to Francis' displeasure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one was so short. I'm already getting slammed with homework :(. I'll make the next one longer, promise!

Francis loved cooking for his children. He adored seeing them enjoy the food he had prepared for them. However, some days he was just too tired to cook for them. He had gone from a part-timer to a full-timer when the boys had transitioned from first grade to second grade. He only worked during their school hours and stayed during the weekends. Arthur did the same things but as an editor it typically didn't end up with the whole family being home on the weekends. Francis was left to the meals most of the time. The reasoning behind that was because Francis didn't want Arthur to poison their children.

Tonight was one of those night where Francis was too tired to make anything beyond grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup. The day had started out well, Francis had enough energy to make strawberry crepes for breakfast. However as the day wore on he had experienced difficulties at his restaurant. Francis usually came home an hour after the boys did. After that he got about an hour to rest before he had to make dinner. Sometimes that hour didn't feel like enough. Today was one of those days.

Alfred seemed rowdier than usual and Francis was tiring very quickly. He begged Matthew to watch over his brother while he made dinner. Matthew nodded and went back to his book. Francis had the feeling that Matt might forget about his duty soon. Francis sighed and went to the kitchen, wishing that Arthur was there to help him.

Francis got started on the chicken soup and begrudgingly made it from a can. He added as many herbs as he could to make himself forget that he ever even used premade soup. Arthur was the only one who did that. It was one of the few things that he was able to cook that didn't turn into a blackened mess.

Francis sighed and put the lid of the pot on and begun making some grilled cheese. He finished quickly and called Al and Matt in to the dining room to eat. They sat around the table and Francis tiredly chewed on his food. Alfred was done with his plate and was getting seconds before Francis could get more than halfway through his first plate. Al helped himself to another sandwich and a spoonful of soup before continuing eating.

"This is really really good papa," Alfred said. He chewed happily.

Francis smiled, "Good. I'm glad you like it mon petite."

"I like it too!" Matthew said, not about to be left out. Francis was sitting to the right of Matthew and he ruffled his hair. Matt grinned and finished off his food.

Al and Matt left their dishes in the sink for Francis to clean when they were done. Francis took the last bite of his meal and dragged himself to the sink where he rinsed the dishes and stuck them in the dishwasher before dragging himself to his bedroom for a nap.

* * *

Francis stood at the stove and labored over some Boeuf Bourguignonne. Arthur was in the living room playing with the boys. Francis sprinkled the last of the spices and carried the pot over to the table. Arthur saw what he was doing and wrangled up the boys and went into the dining room. Arthur set the table beyond what Francis had done already. When Francis opened the pot to spoon in some of the stew for his children. Alfred scanned the table like he was looking for something.

"Can we have grilled cheese today too papa?" Al asked.

"I didn't make any grilled cheese today but I made some croissants," Francis replied and offered Al the basket full of sweet smelling bread. 

Alfred shook his head, "I wanted grilled cheese today. Your grilled cheese is the best!"

Francis smiled softly, "I'm glad you like my grilled cheese but we're not having that today."

Alfred groaned and took a croissant. After everyone was served and took their first bite Alfred piped up again.

"This stew is good! But I think it would be better with grilled cheese! Grilled cheese makes every kind of soup better!"

The corner of Francis' lip twitched up. Arthur saw Francis' annoyance and stepped in.

"Alfred, papa spent a lot of time on dinner. Just eat your food," Arthur said.

"Yeah, eat your food Al!" Matt said. Alfred glared at his brother but ate in silence for a while.

Al broke his silence near the end of their meal, "So can you make grilled cheese tomorrow?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew begins to show interest in outdoor survival. He signs up for the boy scouts and is informed that they are giving away camping badges to the boys that take a camping trip by the very next weekend.

Little eleven year old Matthew had begun to grow an interest in exploring the outdoors. Francis and Arthur had encouraged him by buying him nice survival handbooks and even let him sign up for the boy scouts. They loved that their son was taking an interest in something healthy. Matthew was very happy that his dads' thought that it was cool that he was doing all of these things. But he had recently discovered that a camping badge was offered. Matt wanted to go camping so he could get the badge. He had begged his parents all day the day he had found out and now was sitting in his room, waiting for the answer. He wanted to go into his parents' room just to check if they were talking about it or not but managed to hold himself back. He didn't want to disturb them if they  _were_ talking.

* * *

 Francis flopped into bed after taking a nice, relaxing bath. He sighed and turned to his side so he could face Arthur. Arthur was in the same position.

"So then who's going?" Arthur asked.

"He said that the badge was due by the next weekend," Francis murmured, closing his eyes again.

Arthur pushed at his shoulder lightly, "Don't fall asleep in the middle of a conversation, git."

"Désolé, I'm tired," Francis said, covering his mouth as he yawned. Arthur moved his hand soothingly up and down Francis' arm. "If you keep doing that I  _will_ go to sleep."

Arthur stopped his movements but kept his hand on his husband's arm. Arthur yawned due to Francis, "Damn, now you got me yawning too."

Francis moved back to the topic at hand, "So who's going to go with him?"

Arthur moved the hand resting on Francis and brushed his hair back. He breathed out heavily, "I'm pretty booked until then. The book I'm editing is due soon so I have to stay behind and help my team."

Francis nodded and then stopped, "Wait, so  _I_ have to go?"

Arthur shrugged the shoulder that wasn't underneath him, "'Fraid so."

Francis groaned and said almost to himself, "I  _hate_ the outdoors."

"No you don't," Arthur said, "You would spend all day out in the garden if you could."

"Fine, I don't hate the outdoors. I hate the disgusting little bugs and the rodents that live there."

"Sounds more like it. But I'm afraid you'll have to suck it up."

Francis sighed, "I know. I wasn't going to say no to Mattie just because I couldn't handle a few bug bites."

"That's a good papa," Arthur said and nuzzled into his pillow, pulling the covers up to his chin.

Francis scooted closer and nipped at Arthur's ear, "Will I get a reward for going out and facing the horrors of nature?"

Arthur grinned, "If you're good."

* * *

Arthur and Alfred waved goodbye to Francis and Matthew as they sped away in Francis' car.

"Are you ready for a fun camping trip?" Francis said cheerfully.

Matt nodded enthusiastically. He could barely get any sleep the other night because he was so excited about this trip. He wished Arthur could come and maybe even Al so he could show them just how good of a survivalist he had become. He bounced in his seat and Francis chuckled.

"Calm down, we won't be there for a while."

Matthew groaned. However long it was that he would have to wait he was sure he would die of excitement before that. He chatted with his father through the entire drive and was even able to take a nap for a couple hours. Francis dutifully drove them to the campsite and gently shook Matthew awake.

Matthew lifted his head and blearily looked around. He opened his eyes wide when he saw the plot that they were supposed to set up camp in. It was fairly small but it wasn't crammed in between the RVs that littered the campgrounds. They were near the bathrooms too, which Francis was grateful for.

Matthew jumped out of the car and ran into the empty space full of rocks. Francis looked at the pointy objects with distaste. He was glad that he had insisted on bringing an air mattress. He was sure that otherwise he would never get any sleep. Matthew bounded through the plot and stopped in front of the fire pit.

"Look papa! We can make some s'mores without the little grill!" Matthew ran around the empty space energetically and Francis smiled.

"Alright Matthew, help me put up the tent or we're going to sleep without any shelter tonight," Francis said and opened the trunk of his car. A few things came tumbling out without the door there to hold them back but Francis ignored them for a while as he dug for the box containing their tent.

Matthew came bounding over and collected the things that were lying at Francis' feet as he struggled to get the box out from underneath the portable grill. Finally after moving the grill to a more convenient place he was able to worm the tent out. He set the box gently on the ground. He opened it and took out the fold-able poles and next the tent itself. Matthew grabbed the poles and began looking for a good place to set up camp. Francis took the last item out of the box. It was a little bag that held the screw-thingys for keeping the tent up.

Francis got up from his knees and walked over with the rest of the things piled in his arms. Matthew was standing in the middle of the open area. Francis dumped everything unceremoniously onto the ground. He would just sort through that later. Matthew looked at him disapprovingly.

"Papa you know we need the tent before we do anything with these poles right?" Matt said.

"Right, of course I knew that," Francis said bending down and picking up the tent again. Matthew giggled. Francis grinned, "Don't tell your father that happened. I have a reputation I've got to keep as the butch dad."

Matthew giggled a little more. They set up the tent quickly thanks to Matthew's knowledge of outdoor activities. Francis took out the air mattress and filled it up with the the little air pedal that he had to step on to get air into the mattress. Matthew busied himself with bringing the rest of what they needed out for the night. They had left late and it was time for dinner. Francis crawled out of the tent and got the cooler out of the trunk of the car. It was too heavy for Matt to carry on his own.

Francis turned on the grill with a twist of a dial. He took out the chicken that he had carefully packed out of the cooler. Matthew bounced around behind him. Francis, in an effort to get him to calm down, let him grill the chicken. Francis took out the vegetables and plates and set up their meal as best as he could. Matthew watched over the chicken, occasionally turning it as Francis set up their plates. He had thought that finger food would be the best for a camping trip so he had decided on making chicken fajitas.

Matthew finished with the chicken and Francis came over with the knife to cut it into pieces.

"Papa, can I cut the chicken?" Matthew asked hopefully. Francis had let Matt help him cook before but he had never let him handle a knife before.

"Alright," Francis said after some thought.

Matthew beamed, "Really?"

"But don't think that you're going to be doing this alone young man," Francis said, mimicking the tone that Arthur always had when he put the boys in line.

"Okay," Matthew said cheerfully. Francis held out the knife, handle first and Matt took it. He moved to the chicken as soon as the object was in his hand and waited for Francis to tell him what to do. Francis stood behind Matt and carefully guided his hand. He didn't let Matthew hold the chicken down but he let him cut it. Their dinner was ready soon after Matt got a hold of a rhythm. Francis put it all together at the end and then they were happily munching on dinner. The sun was setting and they both didn't say much as they watched the sky turn pink and orange. Moments like this were when Francis was glad that Matthew was a quiet child.

When they were done eating Francis gathered up their now empty paper plates and dumped them in the trash can that was offered at their site. Matthew ran around and gathered up dry sticks and grass. He also took some paper from out of the car. Francis grabbed the lawn chairs from the back, already knowing what his son wanted to do now that the sun was setting. He unfolded the chairs and let Matthew do his thing. He already knew he wasn't as skilled as his son when it came to this stuff. Matthew took the lighter that they had packed and tried to turn it on.

Francis got up from his chair, "I think it would be better if I did that."

Francis held out his hand with a raised eyebrow and Matthew reluctantly gave over the lighter and the piece of paper he was trying to set on fire. Francis did what Matthew was trying to do and threw the burning paper into the ready fire wood and dry grass. Francis poked at the fire until it grew into a steady flame. Matthew jumped up and grabbed the bag of marshmallows and the metal rods that they would use to hold it over the fire.

Matthew stuck two marshmallows at the end of his rod and pretty much put the marshmallows in the middle of the flames. His white little puffs caught in the blaze blackened steadily and Matthew took them out when they looked to be almost completely burned. Francis evenly cooked his until they were a nice golden color. They both stuck them in between graham crackers and chocolate pieces and enjoyed their treat.

When Matthew finished his first s'more he turned to Francis, "Thank you papa for taking me camping!"

Francis smiled and ruffled Matt's hair, "It's no problem mon fils, I'm glad I came."

Matthew grinned widely and began burning another set of marshmallows. Francis gave in after a little while and made another s'more as well. He and Matt talked and laughed and they enjoyed themselves immensely. Francis was glad that he got to spend so much time with his son. They stayed up and chatted. Francis told the story of how he and Arthur met and when they first knew that they fell in love. He also told Matt about the first night they had taken Matt and Al home.

Matt listened excitedly and told Francis about his friend that he had begun growing close to. He liked Carlos and even called him his best friend. Matt thought it was funny that his friend had an odd obsession with ice cream and sometimes mistook him for Alfred.

It had grown late without them realizing it and the fire was just a few embers again. Francis looked up to the sky when he realized it was so dark. It was gorgeous. There were so many more stars than they could ever see at their home in the city. He could even see the faint trail of the Milky Way, which he never could hope to see at his urban home.

"Look at the stars Mattie," Francis said. Matt looked up and sucked in his breath.

"Wow," he breathed. Francis looked away from the sky for a moment to look at his son's face. The stars reflected in his glasses and his mouth was open in awe. He slowly raised his arm and pointed. He started listing the constellations, moving his finger to point at each one he listed. Francis was only able to locate the Big Dipper on his own. The stars looked so much bigger than he was used to. He and Matt sat on their chairs and looked at the stars for a long time before finally deciding to retire for the night. After unrolling their sleeping bags they curled together on the queen sized mattress and fell asleep.

The night was cold and the mattress wasn't the most comfortable of things that Francis had slept on but he really didn't care. The evening was good enough to forget all that he had been dreading on this trip. His itchy mosquito bites didn't even deter his mood.

* * *

The next morning Francis was woken up by Matt bouncing around, trying to wake him up.

"Papa, can we go on a walk?" Matthew said as Francis opened his eyes halfway, squinting against the faint sunlight that streamed through the thin cloth of their tent. Francis nodded and yawned. He tugged at the zipper of his sleeping bag and gave up when it got stuck. He wriggled out of his little cocoon and joined his son outside. They would have to leave that afternoon. That was when everyone signing out had to be gone by. So he obliged Matt and they wandered around the camp grounds.

Matt tried to chase the small animals that revealed themselves at times but he didn't wander too far from his father. They were done with their lap around the grounds too soon for their tastes but they had to pack up and leave. Francis deflated the mattress and Matt folded their sleeping bags. They both worked together to take the tent down and put it back into the little box that it came from. They packed up quickly and soon Francis was in the office signing them out as Matthew waited in the car.

Matthew was curled in his seat, his head resting on the window when Francis came back inside. He got into the car as quietly as was possible. Matthew stirred at the noise of the door being shut and rubbed at his eyes.

"You can go back to sleep mon petite," Francis said.

Matthew nodded and resumed the position he was in before being woken. Francis drove them home and when they got back they were greeted with a happy Arthur. Alfred came outside for a little while to say hi to them but rushed back in when the welcoming was over. Arthur said that he had allowed Al to have Tony stay the night. Matt crawled out of the passenger seat and hugged Arthur.

"Did you have fun?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah!" Matt said happily. He began to recount all that they had done that night. Arthur listened carefully and stepped inside. Francis was too tired to unpack the car so he followed them inside. By the time Matt's story was finished he seemed to have regained his energy. He ran off to tell Al about his fun time as well and Francis and Arthur were left alone together. Francis sank into the couch and Arthur say beside him. Francis rested his head on Arthur's shoulder and sighed.

"It sounds like you two had fun," Arthur said and wrapped his arm around Francis' shoulders.

Francis smiled softly, "Oui, it was great."

"So the bugs didn't bother you?"

"Of course they did. I have some battle scars from them."

Arthur chuckled and leaned into Francis, "I missed you when you were gone."

"I missed you too," Francis said. They kissed softly. Francis opened his mouth and their kiss deepened.

" _Ew_. Gr-oss," Matt and Alfred exclaimed simultaneously behind them in mortification.  

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfred has gotten a little jealous of Matthew being in the Boy Scouts so he signs up for Little League where he meets a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry that this is late. I kind of got busy and it was hard to find time to write. But I'll post a chapter tomorrow as well!

Al had been seeing Matt having so much fun at Boy Scouts and he was beginning to become a little jealous. Matt always came back happy and excited for the next meet-up. He was having so much fun and Al wanted a little part of that. He didn't want to join the Boy Scouts though. How lame would that be if he joined something because his brother was in it? No, Alfred wanted to be in a cool club where he could have fun.

For a week Al looked for announcements at school that were about the clubs that were being offered. Nothing caught his interest though. But one day there were posters that littered the hallways looking for people to sign up for the Little League. Alfred knew that this was what he was going to sign up for the moment he saw the first poster. It would be really awesome to be in Little League. Maybe he could even be the hero of his team and get a bunch of home runs.

He went into the gym immediately to sign up and told his parents about it when he got home. Francis and Arthur were both thrilled that he had begun to take an interest in something and he was getting excited about the try outs.

* * *

Alfred went into the field next to the school and headed towards a group of boys. They looked like they were going to sign up for the Little League too and he stood with them. He tried to talk to quite a few of them but he felt like he was being a little annoying.

He spotted a black-haired boy standing in the back of the group alone, shuffling awkwardly. Al was about to talk to him but he was interrupted by the gym teacher. He rounded them up with a loud voice. Try outs started out with a couple laps around the track for a warm up and then they were off to batting and catching. At the end of try-outs their loud teacher informed them that they had all made it into the League.

Al bounded happily to the car where Francis waited for him. Al jumped in with a smile and Francis smiled with him.

"I take it it went well?" Francis said.

"Yeah! I got in!" Alfred said and raised a fist into the air.

"That's great!" Francis said as he pulled away from the school.

"I know right?" Al said enthusiastically. Francis chuckled.

* * *

Today was the first official meet up for the Little League team and Al was running around with his teammates. Their coach gathered them around so he could get all of their clothing sizes and the numbers they wanted on their uniforms so that they could get them on their next meet-up. Alfred chose the number 76. He didn't know why he just felt like it was a good number.

When they were done with ordering their uniforms their coach let them practice pitching, batting and catching so they could decide what part of the team they wanted to be on.

Everyone else had already seemed to find their friends. Alfred wanted to join a group but he didn't know which one. He would normally team up with Tony during group assignments but Tony didn't sign up for the Little League. Alfred was about to join a random group when he noticed the same dark haired boy from their try outs. He was still standing alone and still shuffling awkwardly but this time he wore a glove on one hand. It looked really big on him, like it would slip off if he swung his arm.

The coach saw that the boy had no partner and began walking towards him to make sure that he was really alone before asking someone to invite him to their group. Alfred stepped in before he could though, effectively saving the boy from having it announced that he had found no friends yet.

"Do you mind throwing the ball to me so I can hit it?" Al asked the boy. The boy bobbed his head in affirmation. Alfred tossed the ball that he was holding at the boy and he caught it with a little fumbling. 

"I'm Alfred by the way, but you can call me Al," Al said.

"I'm Kiku," the boy said softly. 

 "Nice to meet you!" Al called over his shoulder as he ran a good distance to bat at. 

When he found a distance that he he spread his legs and hauled the bat over his shoulder. He waited for Kiku to throw the ball. The darker haired boy lifted his arm and with a near perfect form sent the ball flying towards Al. Al swung his bat and hit the ball with a loud  _whack_.

The ball went soaring across the field and their coach looked at them approvingly.

"Good job boys," the coach said. Kiku and Al grinned at each other.

"I'll race you to the ball," Al said and dashed off laughing. Kiku followed behind him, giggling in joy.

After that they became good friends. Al wasn't sure how it happened but their thing became whales. He guessed that they started talking about whales one day and it escalated from there. Al thought it was kind of cool to have an animal that was you and your friends. Instead of having a song that friends would have as their theme song they had an animal. It was pretty awesome in Al's opinion and it made their friendship pretty strong. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfred has found a furry little bundle that he would very much like to keep but he has to fight his parents before he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel bad for giving you guys a short chapter that was late so I made this one a lot longer. I actually had a lot of time to work on it too! So here you go, hope you like it.

Alfred kicked a small rock that was in front of him and kicked it again when he came back into range. He was walking home from his Little League practice. Francis usually picked him up but this time Al's and Matt's club activities clashed. Matt wasn't in walking distance so Al was supposed to walk straight home after practice. Arthur was going to take time off so that he could drop Al off at home but Al assured him that he was fully capable of a fifteen minute walk home.

Arthur had reluctantly agreed to let Al walk home and here he was. It wasn't as eventful as Al thought it would be. He still felt that swell of independence but his sense of adventure was a little lost on account of him being in familiar surroundings. Al kicked the same rock that he had been again. He hit it at an odd angle and it went flying into the road. He quite liked that rock but decided that it wasn't worth going into the street for. He sighed and was about to turn his head so he would look forward again when something caught his eye.

Across the street stood a puppy who was sniffing at the bushes. Al slowed his pace so he could watch the little dog. The puppy started walking along the bushes, nose still pressed to the ground. It clumsily tripped over its large paws but continued on like it hadn't happened. Al looked around the street for cars. It was clear so he crossed. He wanted to pet the little golden dog, it's fur looked so soft. He came up from behind the dog and reached his hand out.

He brushed his fingers across the puppy's back and the dog jumped. The puppy whirled around, ears flopping around everywhere. Al froze and stared. The puppy did the same. His hand still hung in the air between the animal and himself. Eventually after a few tense moments of stillness the puppy edged forwards. It sniffed at Al's hand and nuzzled it's face into his palm when it deemed Al safe to continue interacting with.

Alfred gained a little courage and scratched behind the dog's big ears. The dog wasn't as soft as he thought it was, in fact it felt quite dirty. Al didn't ponder on it too much. The puppy's tongue lolled out and it looked like it was smiling. It's tail beat at the air furiously and Al giggled. He scratched at the puppy a little more. It yipped happily. Al pet the dog for a little longer.

He finally stopped so he could continue his walk home. He stood and started walking again. He wanted to spend more time with the puppy but knew that if Francis got home before he did he would freak out. Al walked for a little while. He heard a faint, steady, clicking noise behind him and looked over his shoulder in mild curiosity. The same puppy that he had been with was following him. Al brushed it off as its home being in the same direction. He continued walking and made the last turn that would put him on his street. He still heard the clack of the puppies claws against the pavement. Al decided he would find out if the dog was really following him.

Al picked up his pace and the clacking became fainter. He slowed down when he couldn't hear it anymore. He knew it was just a coincidence. Then he heard the sound coming towards him at a frantic pace. He stopped and whipped around. The puppy was charging towards him paws, that were too big for it, flying everywhere. Al giggled at the sight of the clumsy dog. He took a step back so that the puppy wouldn't ram into him. But the puppy stopped in front of him. The little animal looked at him with big, brown eyes. Al had a feeling that the dog really _was_ following him.

He stepped forward, careful not to scare the puppy. He kneeled again and stroked at its head. He was sure at this point that the dog was following him so he gently lifted it into his arms. The puppy didn't even squirm after getting itself comfortable in Al's embrace. Al straightened and the puppy licked at his face. He giggled again and went him. The puppy looked around from its perch the entire time, never once making a fuss.

After a little ways Al made it to his house. He sighed and put the puppy down again.

"You can go home now puppy," Al said a little sadly. The puppy only sat on its haunches and cocked its head. Al sighed and fished his keys out of his backpack. Maybe the puppy would leave after he went inside. Al marched to the front door and unlocked it. He stepped inside and heard a whimper behind him. He turned and found that the puppy was _still_ trailing him. Al looked down at the dog's sad eyes.

Well, Al reasoned, the puppy _was_ pretty dirty. Maybe it didn't have a home. So if it didn't have a home then that meant that the puppy had chosen Al to be his master. Al chewed at his lip. Arthur would definitely be mad if he let the dog into the house. Al thought it over for a little while before taking action.

Al threw his backpack into the house and picked the dog up again. Like last time, it didn't move around too much and still licked at Al's face. Al grinned and shut the door behind him. Of course he wouldn't let the dog stay in the house. But he  _could_ let the dog into the backyard. Al moved to their back door and swung it open. He let the dog onto their porch and stepped outside with it. He heard the sound of Francis' car in the driveway. The doors slamming shut made its way to Al's ears as well a moment later. The front door was opened.

"Al are you home?" Francis called into the house.

"Yeah, I'm in the backyard!" Al called back. He watched the puppy chase around a butterfly.

Francis opened the back door behind him. "Oh there you-" Francis cut himself off. Al looked behind him at his father who was staring with his mouth open.

"What?" Al said. Francis looked to his son.

" _What?_ There is a random dog romping around in the backyard," Francis said.

"Yeah, I found it when I was walking home," Al explained. Francis closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

"Alfred, you can't just take animals off the street home," Francis said. "Do you know how angry your father will be?"

Al shrugged and mumbled, "How can he be angry about a puppy?"

Francis sighed, "We're taking it back. It probably has a home. Where did you find it?"

"Look how dirty he is! There's no way he has a home," Al said, gesturing at the dog wildly.

"Alfred, don't argue we're taking it back," Francis said.

Alfred stopped himself from pouting, even though he wanted to and stomped towards the dog. The puppy stopped chasing its tail and jumped around Al's legs instead. Al smiled sadly and hefted the puppy into his arms. Al stomped angrily back and shoved past his father. He went into the living room where Matt was sitting and watching TV. Matt lifted his head and his eyes widened.

"Woah, did we get a puppy?" Matt said and shot up from his place on the couch.

"No," Al said bitterly, "Papa isn't going to let us keep him."

"What?" Matt said and looked towards Francis who was standing behind Al, "But papa-"

Francis cut him off, "I'm sorry boys but we can't have a puppy in the house."

"Yeah okay," Al muttered and went to the front door. He heard Francis telling Matt what they were doing and that they would be back soon before he slammed the door shut behind him. He made his way to the car and threw himself into the passenger seat and sat seething.

Francis got into the drivers side and started the engine.

"Where did you find the dog?" he asked softly.

"Near the bushes about two blocks from here," Al spat. Francis backed the car out of the driveway and drove to the area that Al had told him. Francis pulled up in front of the bushes that Al had first spotted the puppy in his arms.

"Here?" Francis asked. Alfred nodded curtly and got out of the car. Francis followed behind him, feeling a little guilty. But he knew that the dog was better off in its home, wherever it was.

Al pointed at the bushes beside him, "I found him sniffing around here."

Francis noticed that his son was still very beside himself and placed his hands on Al's shoulders, "It'll be happier when it's home, Alfred."

Alfred's shoulders sagged and he nodded sadly. Francis decided that the best place to start looking for the dog's owner was at the house that Al had found it in front of. He stepped past the thick bushes and stopped when he saw what was hidden behind one. He stepped forward and a wave of anger rippled through him. Two dead puppies who looked the same as the puppy in Al's arms lay limply in a cardboard box.

"Alfred get back in the car," Francis said.

"What?" Al asked, confused.

"Get back in the car," Francis repeated. Whoever these puppies belonged to they would not be getting one back if this was how they were treated. Francis stormed towards the door of the house that the puppies were in front of. Francis banged loudly on the front door. A woman answered the door.

"Yes can I help you?" the woman said and looked pointedly at the "no solicitors" sign that was hanging on her front door.

"Have you perhaps lost some puppies?" Francis said tersely.

The woman looked confused, "What? No I don't own any dogs, I'm allergic."

Francis managed to compose himself after that. The woman was obviously telling the truth. And now that he knew he wasn't dealing with the cruel person he thought he was it was easier to cool down.

"I'm sorry, it's just that," Francis looked behind him at the cardboard box on the woman's lawn, "Well, there are a couple of puppies in that box."

"Really?" the woman looked past him and stepped outside, making sure to close the door behind her. She went onto her grass and made her way to the box. Francis trailed behind her.

The woman covered her mouth with a hand when she saw what the box contained, "Oh my goodness. Now I see why you looked so upset when I first saw you."

"I just wanted to make sure they weren't yours before I called the police," Francis said.

"No, I would never do something like this. Even though I'm allergic to dogs doesn't mean I hate them," the woman said and turned to face Francis, "Thank you for not calling the police immediately. You can go home now, I'll be sure to call the pound so they can pick them up."

Francis nodded and parted with a wave of his hand. He climbed back into the car where Alfred waited, looking puzzled.

Francis sighed, "You can keep the dog for one night."

"Seriously?" Alfred exclaimed, "Thank you, thank you, thank you papa."

" _One night_ ," Francis said. But Al didn't seem to be listening to him as he held the puppy in front of his face.

"Did you hear that Hero?" Al said and the puppy licked at his face. The puppy didn't know why Al was so exited but it shared his excitement eagerly.

Francis started the engine, "Hero?"

"Yeah, that's what I named him," Alfred said, "Oh and I also checked that it was really a 'him.'"

"Did you completely ignore me when I said we were only keeping it for one night?" Francis said as he sped towards home. Al still didn't seem to be listening to him as he petted the dog happily. Francis couldn't imagine what it would be like to have the dog all the time. He couldn't even imagine explaining to Arthur that they were going to be keeping a dog for one night, much less for the puppies entire life. Which reminded Francis that he was sure he was just going to have a _blast_  explaining to his husband why there was going to be having a dog in the house for the rest of the day.

* * *

Arthur returned home an hour after Francis had told Al that it was okay for him to keep the puppy for the night.

Arthur got out of his car. He heard Al and Matt laughing in the backyard accompanied by a high pitched... bark? Arthur shook his head slightly. He was being absurd. They didn't own a dog. He stepped into the house after unlocking the door. He could see Francis seated at the couch. Francis whipped his head around at the sound of Arthur opening and closing the door. Francis got up from his seat and made his way over to Arthur. He allowed Arthur time to take off his shoes and straighten before pecking him on the lips.

"Hello, mon amour," Francis said, looping his arms around Arthur's waist.

"Oh, hello to you too," Arthur said, slightly surprised. They hadn't greeted each other from work that way since Matt and Al were small. They did it on occasion but it was nothing beyond a distracted and hurried press of lips.

Francis smiled sweetly and brushed his thumb over Arthur's cheek, "So... Don't get angry but-"

Arthur cut his husband off with a groan, "I should have known you were being too sweet. What happened?"

Now that he was caught Francis dropped the act but didn't remove his arms. He quite liked holding his husband like this.

"Okay well, there was an incident with Alfred," Francis said and at Arthur's worried expression hurriedly added, "He's fine! It's just he seemed to have found a puppy that he grew attached to on his walk home from the Little League today."

Arthur groaned again and thumped his head on Francis' shoulder, "A puppy? You said that he couldn't keep it right?"

"Well..." Francis said and Arthur whipped his head back.

"You  _didn't?_ _"_  Arthur exclaimed.

"Well, I might have said that he could- that he could keep him for one night?" Francis said trying to make himself sound innocent.

"Oh dear," Arthur said and untangled himself from Francis' arms. "You'll give him hope if you say that. Matt hasn't done anything with it right? You know how attached he gets to things."

"Right. About that-" Francis began.

Arthur slapped his forehead with his hand, "I can't believe it." 

Arthur went out into the backyard where he saw the boys romping around with an unfamiliar, soapy puppy. The puppy was following Alfred around and Matthew chased the two of them with the hose that was splashing water around. 

Matt and Al froze when they saw Arthur standing on the porch. The puppy ran into Al's legs. 

Al raised his hand, "Um. Hey dad."

The puppy at seeing the newcomer, ran up to Arthur and started sniffing at him.

Arthur pointed at the puppy, looked at his boys and said, "No."

Matt and Al's faces crumpled and they said simultaneously, "But-"

" _No_ ," Arthur repeated. 

Francis grabbed at one Arthur's hands, "Mon amour, I did say that they could keep Hero for only one night."

" _Hero?"_ Arthur said, "You've named it already?"

 "Dad," Alfred said, "He doesn't have a home. Can we  _please_ keep him for tonight?"

The puppy had ran back to Al at this point and was circling his legs. Occasionally Hero lost his footing and collided in a soppy mess with Al's legs. Al occasionally looked down and smiled. Arthur watched the interaction and found himself unable to say no. It was just for tonight. 

"Fine," Arthur relented. "You can keep the dog for one night. But tomorrow we're taking it to the pound."

Arthur turned to go back inside. Francis stayed outside and watched the boys play. Arthur took off his shoes and socks and put them away, changing into something more comfortable while he was at it. He came back outside to find Francis sitting in one of the lawn chairs. He joined him and they both stared silently as they watched Al chase Matt around with the hose. He had gotten a hold of it at some point and was now happily drenching his brother. Hero yipped happily beside Al, occasionally jumping into the stream of water to catch some in his mouth.

Arthur sighed and laced his fingers with Francis'.

"Are we really going to be able to give that dog up tomorrow after this?" Francis asked softly.

Arthur snorted, "I don't know."

After more running through the backyard Al and Matt finally focused and cleaned Hero well. He was no longer covered in dirt and his coat glistened gold. Arthur made sure that the boys dried off the dog well before they could bring him inside. Inside the dog yipped happily. Francis made dinner and Arthur made the boys do their homework. He sat at the dining table with Al, trying to teach him the metric system but Al didn't seem to be grasping it. Hero napped at Al's feet. 

"Oh!," Al exclaimed suddenly, "We haven't fed him yet!"

"I know!" Matt said and ran to the kitchen. He disappeared for a little while. Arthur heard Francis and Matt talking for a little while before Matt returned after some more rustling with one of the bottles that Matt and Al took to school. It was filled with milk and he gave Al the bottle. Matt picked up Hero and cradled him. Hero was belly up and his paws were hanging in the air. He looked between Al and Matt trustfully, still not squirming even in this new position.

Francis had wandered into the dining room as well with dinner ready. Arthur and Francis watched their sons work together to feed the puppy. Matt held him and Al held the bottle for him. Hero sucked at the bottle. The dog was definitely big enough to eat at least soft food but he drank the milk happily anyways. Arthur couldn't help but chuckle at the scene in front of him.

Francis smiled, "I think you can feed him some of your lunch meat."

"Really? He doesn't need milk?" Al asked.

"I'm sure he'll be fine with something solid," Francis reassured.

Al set the bottle down and ran back to the kitchen. The sound of the refrigerator door being slammed shut followed Al as he came back into the dining room. He took out a piece of ham from a package and tossed it to Hero, who had been set back down on the floor. Hero snapped it up and continued nosing around the room. Arthur worried that he was going to pee on the furniture. The dog stopped after a little while though and curled up on Al's feet. Everyone ate the meal that Francis had prepared quickly. The boys seemed to be getting tired from the events of the day. They cleaned up their plates when they were done. Hero, of course, shadowed Al the whole time. He still sniffed at the kitchen suspiciously and Arthur made a note to get the boys to house break him properly. He stopped the thought suddenly. They weren't going to keep the dog, right?

"Make sure Hero goes to the bathroom before you go to bed," Arthur said.

Al saluted and scooped up Hero to take him outside. They were out there for quite a while. Matt was able to shower and brush his teeth in that time.

Al came back in, looking a little exasperated, "He wouldn't go right away. He probably sniffed the whole backyard three times before he did his business!"

Francis chuckled from his place next to Arthur. They were lounging on the couch watching some kind of documentary. Al walked into the living room to join them. Hero sat in his lap as he settled in the armchair. Matt came out from his room and sat with them, cuddling in between Arthur and Francis. When the documentary was over Francis and Arthur got their boys to bed. Al had yet to shower and brush his teeth so he did that before retiring for the night. Hero sat outside of the bathroom door the entire time Al was in there.

Arthur was still curled up with Francis on the couch, watching some more TV shows. Arthur heard Al come out of the bathroom and go to his bedroom, the happy clicking of Hero's nails trailing his footsteps. After another hour when Arthur's and Francis' show was over they decided that they would go to bed as well. Arthur checked on the boys as Francis got ready for bed. Matthew was cuddling his pillow peacefully when Arthur checked on him. Arthur pulled up his blanket and kissed his forehead before moving on to Al's room.

Al had Hero on his bed with him. Arthur couldn't find it in himself to be mad though when Al looked so happy with the puppy wrapped in his arms. Hero was asleep as well, his head rested on top of Al's arm. Arthur kissed Al's forehead and petted Hero's head. Arthur retired for the day and went to sleep quickly, thinking about the pros and cons of having a dog in the house.

* * *

Arthur woke to the smell of french toast and happy chatter. Arthur dragged himself out of bed and went to the living room where his sons were gathered. Matt and Al sat on the floor, playing with Hero. Arthur moved to the kitchen where Francis was plating breakfast.

Francis smiled at his husband, "Good morning."

"Morning," Arthur replied and pecked Francis' cheek, stealing a blueberry as Francis was distracted. Arthur chewed on the fruit and leaned against the counter.

"The boys seem to be having fun," Francis said as loud laughter reached their ears.

"I know," Arthur said, "Which is why we're keeping the damn dog."

Francis looked up from the plates he was setting up, "Really?"

"Maybe Hero will teach the boys some responsibility," Arthur said. Francis moved to Arthur and kissed him.

"They'll be thrilled when they hear about this," Francis said happily.

"Yeah, yeah," Arthur said. He helped Francis take the plates out to the dining room. The boys filed in and eagerly ate their food. When they were all done Arthur made them stay. He announced that they would be keeping furry, little Hero and the boys jumped around the room excitedly. Al lifted Hero into his arms and jumped around, the dog barking with excitement. Matthew flung himself onto Arthur, thanking him profusely and did the same with Francis.

Al was practically glowing as he got ready for school. Arthur was sure that he had made the right choice and thus a new member to the family was added.   


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family has moved and Alfred and Matthew need to get used to their new school. Alfred tries to make friends but the students in his new school don't seem to be as accepting of his behavior like the people he used to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for skipping a day of posting. I was having a lot of trouble with this chapter and my homework kept piling up as well. Sorry again, I won't make this lateness a habit I promise! I'm also sorry about the fact that it was kind of sad. I really did try to make it lighthearted with Al's obnoxiousness... but yeah, that didn't really happen. Ok, I'm going to stop apologizing now.

Alfred was sitting in a plush chair, waiting for his counselor to take him to his first classroom. He had been showed around the school yesterday with Matt but they insisted that they would be escorted to their first class for introductions. Matt had already been dragged out and Al waited in impatiently for this to be over with.

Finally the counselor walked in, all smiles, acting like nothing was wrong. Al thought that there was definitely wrong so far. Normally he could just go to class with no fuss, but _no_ they had to have him join school all formal-like. On top of that, he was no longer going to school with Tony or Kiku. Money problems apparently had landed Al's family in a new house.

Of course Al could still see his friends though, they had all made a pact that they would go over to one of their houses every weekend but Al still wished that he could hang out with them more. He would definitely miss eating lunch with them, the occasional food fight breaking out between himself and Tony.

Al stood up and followed the counselor to his classroom. He felt the whole thing really unnecessary. He was totally capable of getting himself to a class, not to mention introducing himself. That stuff was easy, he could do it without assistance. He was glad that Matthew was brought in like that, he was far too shy to ever be able to speak in front of the classroom. In Al's opinion Matt stuttered more when he was speaking publicly than when he was angry. He had gotten over his sudden inability to speak when he was angry now. Now it was just a few repetition of words and letters here and there.

Al was led into his homeroom and the counselor waited until she had everyone's attention. Or at least eyes, they all didn't seem to be listening to her when she started to speak.

"This is Alfred everyone. He'll be joining your class today," the counselor announced.

Alfred waved his hand, "Hey, you can call me Al instead of Alfred, everyone does.

No one rely payed him any attention as they turned back to their friends and began their low chatter again. Al frowned a little bit. He had kind of been ignored in his last school but Tony and Kiku had been there to make him forget about that. Even Matt had been there to speak with him. Al made his way to an empty seat after his teacher urged him to.

Al made sure to sit in a seat that was next to someone. He was going to make an effort this year to make a lot of friends. He hadn't really worried about that in his last school because he always had a class with Matt, Tony or Kiku. But now they weren't here. Matt and Al had compared schedules the moment they got them, only to discover that they only had lunch hour together.

The only seat that was actually empty beside someone was located next to a very bored looking, slightly intimidating guy. Al sat down and turned towards the guy. The teacher had started talking but the guy next to him obviously wasn't going to pay attention anyways.

Al poked his bicep, "Hey, I'm Al, the new kid."

The boy turned his way and gave him a glare, "And I'm not caring."

"Well alright then," Al said, slightly defensive. What was the guys problem? He only said hello. Al turned back to his paper and began to take some notes. Only a few other kids seemed to be doing the same and it was apparent that the teacher really didn't care as they droned on about the Pythagorean theorem. Al had already learned about this so he quickly did the problems that were given.

The rest of the day continued like that. Al was mostly ignored when he spoke to people but the occasional person would interact with him. The classes were all boringly easy and the majority of the teachers didn't seem to care. This was a little different than what he was used to. In his last school the people were okay and the teachers actually taught but there seemed to be less of that here. Al thought about how good their advertising must be because there was no way Arthur and Francis would actually sign him and Matt up to a school like this on purpose.

The only upside was that he only had to put half of his effort into the schoolwork before he was done. It felt good to be done with his homework before class ended.

Al and Matt sat at lunch together. Being the new kids they didn't have any friends yet and no one seemed to be thrilled with the idea of talking with them anyways. They spoke of what they thought of their new school and both agreed that it wasn't as much fun as they thought it would be. Al told Matt about how he tried and failed all day to meet new people and how there were very few who even bothered to give him the light of day. Matt was the same, however unlike Al, he was used to being ignored or forgotten about. Alfred felt bad about that and decided that he would try and get Matt some friends too while he was out socializing.

Al and Matt separated once they left the cafeteria and they went to their own respective classrooms. When Al got to his class his teacher got up and showed him to his assigned seat. He was seated next to a random person. It was a really tall guy with a white scarf. The teacher took role and Al discovered that his name was Ivan. He was kind of scary but Al tried to talk to him. He was mostly ignored until the teacher gave them free time. Al again tried to talk to the boy and this time he was answered.

Ivan started off nice and maybe even a little soft-spoken but then they got deeper into their conversation and Ivan seemed to get ruder. Al got the gist and stopped talking. He wondered if he was being annoying or something. No one seemed to be liking him. Ivan seemed like he wanted to kill him. He didn't know where he was going wrong.

Al went home from school wondering how he could fix whatever he was doing that seemed to be rubbing people the wrong way. Francis told him that he would make some new friends soon and that he should be patient. Arthur pretty much said the same thing. So Al depended on their advice and kept doing what he had been doing for a week. Slowly he started getting attention but not the kind that he was aiming for.

People started to pick on him and called him obnoxious. Al brushed it off the first couple of weeks but it kept growing and growing. Ivan talked to him the most but he also picked on him the most. He had a habit of pressing down in his head and he was sure that if he ever saw any short people hanging out with Ivan he would know why their height was a problem. Al slowly became more reclusive and by the end of the semester barely talked to anyone.

He never spoke a word of it to Francis and Arthur that he was having trouble with the kids at school. He even begged Matt not to speak of it. He didn't want to worry his parents. But he still yearned for his old school, where he could laugh and have fun. 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al and Matt start high school. Al joins the football team and after being bullied in the eighth grade it's a good thing for him. Well, "good" might be a little bit of a stretch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know nothing about football and that's why I glossed over most of the game. So sorry about that :/

Alfred and Matthew had started their first year of high school. It had already been a month and they were adjusting well to the new school in their opinion. Matthew had passed on the sports this year, he was quite indecisive about it. However Al decided on taking part in the freshman football team. He always had an interest in the sport so he decided that he would try it out this year.

Tonight was Al's first game and he was buzzing with nervous excitement. He wondered how different it would be from practice. The people sitting in the stands and watching his team's every move was definitely going to be nerve-wracking. He sat in the locker room, anxiously twirling his helmet in his hands. One of his teammates walked up to him and slapped him reassuringly in the shoulder.

"Don't be so nervous Al, we got this! We're totally going to win today!" his teammate said with an optimistic expression.

Al smiled and nodded.  Of course they would win. This year had been so good so far that there was no way something bad could happen. So far this year Al had slowly gotten popular. People talked to him and enjoyed his company, especially after finding out that he had become the quarterback for their football team. He had also gotten a lot of attention from girls, even the ones from his middle school. It kind of confused him. They said that he looked different from last year, but a " _good_ different." Whatever that meant. He supposed he had grown a lot taller over the summer, he was almost as tall as his parents now, but he really didn't see any other noteworthy differences. But that didn't seem to stop people from complimenting his looks and sometimes they even flirted with him. Al had no idea how to react to the new attention  and most of the time he would stand there and awkwardly smile until one of his teammates saved him.

But he was getting used to it. He still wasn't all that good with his words but he wasn't as awkward as he used to be. Yeah, things were starting to look up and Al couldn't be happier. Tony and Kiku were still his best friends and his and Matt's relationship had never been stronger. That hard year in middle school almost feels like a bad dream to Al now.

Al goes out of  the locker room with a few of his teammates who were shaking off their pregame jitters as well. Their coach had the rest of the team gathered around in a circle and when Al and the rest came into view he grinned.

"Alright, now that you're all here I can give you the stereotypical coach speech," Al's coach said.

There were a few groans, one of Al's teammates added a, "Please don't do that to us Coach Ludwig."

Their coach laughed and said, "Alright, then I'll just leave it then. Do a good job all of you, remember this is only our first game, don't expect it to go perfectly."

"What do we get if we win?" someone asked.

"I won't make your run as many laps," Coach Ludwig offered.

 The team laughed and Coach Ludwig let them go at that. Al and his teammates ran into the stadium with the band blaring music loudly and Al felt a powerful sense of anticipation. He felt like he was going to win this with his teammates and that he would finally be liked and spoken to the way he had wanted to be in middle school. He felt that maybe things would get even better. Maybe not after this game, things didn't change that quickly, he knew that, but still he felt like after this things would be set into motion and his social life might take shape into what he had dreamed of it being.

He went into the game in that mind set. The crowd buzzed around him and the cheerleaders chanted on the sidelines. Al ran, sometimes with a leathery bundle in his arms and other times watching it fly across the dark sky and occasionally losing sight of it when it went in front of the bright stadium lights. The soft grass gave way under his feet and his legs burned pleasantly from all of his running. Then before he knew it it was halftime and cold, refreshing water was running down his throat and his teammate splashed some on his face, waking him up from the reverie for just a moment.

But then he was back on the field, the roaring of the stands turning back into white noise and all that mattered was the ball that he was to get into the goal. He forgot about everything else, there was nothing but his teammates and the barriers that blocked their goal. He ran and passed the ball and received the ball. At one point he thought he saw his dads and Matt sitting in the stands but he quickly forgot about that when he collided with someone after passing off the ball again.

He lined up with his teammates, arms extended so he could get the ball that would be passed back to him. He gauged the distance that he would have to run and made up a few quick scenarios in his head. There was a shout and suddenly something was weighing Al's hands down slightly. At the feeling of the weight Al shot off. He trusted his teammates had his back and he dodged past the couple of people who had eluded the defense. Al ran until he passed the white line that told him he had made a goal.

There was a deafening roar that snapped Al's attention to the stands. People who wore his school's colors jumped into the air, fists raised high. Then Al was in the middle of a bunch of smelly boys with grass stains that covered them. They hugged him and attempted to lift him onto their shoulders. It didn't really work out though ad they let him go with a laugh. Then it hit him.

Al had gotten a goal. Not only that he had won the game. Al grinned and began cheering with his teammates, his friends really. The jumped and ran around and their coach came over and congratulated Al.

Al filed outside into the parking lot with his team, his excitement made everything seem surreal. He had been invited to an after party and he accepted. He ran into his parents and brother and told them his plans. They left with a hug and a congratulations, saying that they were proud of him.

After that Al went to the party. He drank beer there. It was the first time he had drunk any kind of alcohol and he stopped when he got a good buzz going. He still wanted enough sense so that when he went home, it wasn't too obvious what he had been doing. There was no doubt in his mind that his parents would kill him. He enjoyed the party immensely. It was fun to talk to so many people and a girl actually  _kissed_ him. The girl was pretty and after that he spent a lot of time talking to her.

He ended up staying the night at his friend's house, too afraid to go home for fear that his parents would figure out that he had been drinking.

After that Al went through a gradual change. Most of the people at school didn't notice, however the people that had known Al before high school saw the clear difference. Al had gotten wilder. He was almost never at the house and he broke his promise with Tony and Kiku quite a few times. They had  _always_ stayed the night at one of their houses during the weekend but Al began to make excuses about why he couldn't come. He had a party to go. He already promised someone else that he would go to their house. 

Tony and Kiku gave it a little longer, thinking that Al would come back to his senses. He didn't. In fact he began to spend less and less time with them. He had gotten a girlfriend, the girl he had kissed at the party. She lapped up so much of his time that even the people he lived with barely ever saw him.

Arthur and Francis began to get concerned. They immediately noticed the change in behavior from their son. They asked Matt about it and he filled them in with as much as he could without getting his brother in trouble. He didn't want that, he just wanted his brother back.

Al had gotten cocky and towards the end of the football season he had already broken up with three girls. He jumped around a lot, saying that he really couldn't find the right girl on account of them all getting boring after a time. His teammates, his new best friends just congratulated him on going out with so many girls. His fourth girlfriend was around the time that they convinced him that he should have sex. So he did. He liked it a lot less than he thought he would so he broke up with the girl that he had done it with. He tried it a lot with other girls but it really didn't seem to be as thrilling to him as other people made it out to be. He thought it was over-hyped and the thrill was doing it with a lot of people so that was what he did. He still had enough sense to not be stupid about it. He wore protection every time. But that didn't really condone his actions.

Matt found out about his brother's activities from overhearing a conversation. He was appalled that his brother would be doing that and he confronted Al about it. Al just shrugged and said that everyone their age was having sex and that Matt should try it too. At that point Matt contacted Kiku and Tony.

It had been months since Al's decent into insanity. They were almost done with their ninth grade year and Al would have completely lost touch with Tony and Kiku if his friends hadn't persistently kept texting him. Matt called them up and asked if they would help talk to Al with him. They agreed.

Matt told Kiku and Tony when they should meet up. He made sure that they came over on a night that he knew for sure Al would be home. He had overheard Al asking Francis and Arthur for some of his friends to come over. They had said that it was alright with them and so that was the night Tony and Kiku finally cornered Al.

They came over after Al's teammates did and it took a while to coax Al away from them. Al left them to play with Hero in the backyard and went into the living room with his old friends and Matt. Arthur was at work and Francis had gone to the store for dinner ingredients. They didn't have a lot of time to talk to Al so they got straight to the point.

"Al we really need to talk to you, you've gone crazy," Matt said.

Al scoffed, "I haven't gone crazy."

"Yes you have," Kiku said.

"Give me one example," Al retorted.

"Well you fuck every bitch you see," Tony offered.

"You drink a lot," Kiku pointed out.

"How do you guys even know that, it's not like we've talked a lot recently," Al said.

"Matt told us and whose fault do you think it is that we don't talk anymore?" Kiku said.

Al turned to Matt and was about to angrily tell him to get out of his business but he stopped himself. He _had_  stopped talking to Kiku and Tony. He had begun to neglect his best friends, the ones who had been there for him for so long. He turned back to Kiku and Tony.

"I- I'm sorry," Al whispered. Tony clapped his shoulder.

"It's fine. As long as you don't forget about us again, bitch," Tony said.

Al offered a small smile. After that he invited Tony, Kiku and Matt to hang out with his friends and him. His friends welcomed them but were a little hesitant to interact with Matt. He was one of the "uncool" kids at school. Matt thought he was only considered uncool because he was lost in his brothers shadow. He sometimes hated Al for it but cast that feeling aside for today because Al had made some progress.

Francis came home and at seeing Al with Kiku and Tony again he had called Arthur.

"Kiku and Tony are here, they're talking with Al," Francis said as he watched them from the window.

"Oh thank god," Arthur had said, "Do you think he'll come 'round again? Tony's a little vulgar but he and Kiku are good for Al. Do you think he'll stop acting like a little monster now?"

Francis smiled, "Maybe."

It turned out that hanging out with Kiku and Tony again was all that Al had decided to change. Soon time passed into the summer and Al still had sex with a lot of different girls and he still went to parties to drink. He was still out of the house a lot but he kept his promise with Kiku and Tony and hung out with them during the weekends. His friends found him more difficult to handle than usual at times but other times they could hardly tell that he had ever changed. Sometimes they even thought that Al's behavior was just a mask that he put on to make him seem cooler. 

The summer was over quickly and Al and Matt started their sophomore year. Al had signed up for football again. Matt wasn't completely sure, but he was thinking he would take up hockey when the winter sports were offered. But Matt had to get through football season first.

Al had gone back to his normal habits. He again stopped hanging out wit Kiku and Tony. School and football practice made it hard for him to divide his time up evenly between all of his friends and his girlfriend of the month. But one event made him snap back.

Al was walking in the hallways with his friends about to go to lunch. The hallway that led to the cafeteria was connected with the art hallway. But no art classes were being offered this hour so that hallway was deserted most of the time, except for the occasional couple who decided that it was a good place to have a make out session. But this time Matt was there and was surrounded by some of Al's football friends. Al stopped walking and watched them.

"You're Al's twin brother aren't ya? I heard that there's always one gay twin in the pair. I bet it's you since Al's as straight as a board, have you seen all the girls he's been with?" one of the boys said.

"Whatever, I really don't care that you think I'm gay, it's not a bad thing," Matt said and tried to shove past the group.

"Yeah you would think that since you're a fag," said one of the other boys.

Matt clenched his fists and kept making an attempt at leaving. Al began to move toward the group slowly.

Someone else shoved Al back, "Did your daddies make you queer?"

Al had had enough.

"What the fuck are you guys doing?" Al said.

The whole group seemed to jump at the sound of Al's angry voice and Matt looked at him in surprise.

"Oh hey Al,"  one of his "friends" said, "We were just talking to your brother."

Al glared at them and grabbed Matt's arm.

"Don't talk about my family that way, you absolute assholes," Al said and pulled Matt away from the group. "Come on Mattie, we're leaving."

Al sat with Matt for lunch that day and they talked like they would have in the days before Al had signed up for football. Al's teammates seemed to feel bad for the way that they had acted when they were at practice but Al didn't give them the light of day. They still were able to work together well but their personal relationships had taken a heavy blow. Al remained friends with the parts of his team that were not complete dicks. He stopped getting drunk and he took a break from his womanizing. He still didn't feel all that excited during sex so it wasn't that hard to give up.

Al got a hold of himself and he repaired all the relationships that he shouldn't have damaged in the first place. He apologized to his parents for his behavior. He didn't tell them about how far he had let himself go but his apologies made him feel better. He then went to Tony and Kiku and apologized to them as well. They were glad that he had come to them this time and were absolutely certain that he had gotten a hold of himself.

Al was with them and they were playing video games like they would have normally. They were at Al's house and they lounged on the couch. Kiku had just handed his ass to him and Al threw his hands in the air.

"How come you're so good at video games?" Al groaned.

"I'm not all that good, you're just horrible at playing them," Kiku said.

"Shut up," Al said with a smile. Kiku and Tony laughed at him. Al was sure that everything was alright again.

"It's nice to have you back," Tony said, plucking the controller from Al's hands.

Al smiled, "Good to be back, dude."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew decides that he wants to take up a sport and the sport of his choice is hockey. Of course other things begin to go down in his life and he begins to feel a little weird towards someone he's known for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know anything about hockey try outs. At all. So I made a lot of assumptions. If you guys know anything about it and I get something very very wrong go ahead and tell me and I'll change it :).

Matt had decided that he was going to sign up for the hockey team. Seeing Al out there on the football field and Al's description of what it was like when he was playing had made Matt curious. Of course he wasn't going to sign up for football, it didn't interest him as much as it interested his brother. But hockey, hockey felt right.

Matt went into the counselor's office. He requested a sign up sheet and they gave it to him. He took it and signed all the parts he could without his parents there to fill out the rest. He went through the rest of the school day in anticipation. He wanted it signed and for his physical to be over with soon. It wasn't like it would speed up the try out date but it kind of felt like it to him.

When Matt got home he burst through the door. The walk from the bus stop to his house had felt like a long one and he had left Al behind with the speed at which he walked. Matt went searching for one of his parents in a vain hope that one of them would be home. Of course he knew that they were both at work for now but he still let himself hope. After he came back from his search empty-handed Matt flopped down onto the couch so he was laying on his stomach. He sighed and turned his head so he was no longer breathing against the pillow. Al came striding into the living room. He threw his backpack down and collapsed in one of the armchairs.

"You sure were in a hurry," Al said.

"Yeah, well I needed dad or papa to sign this," Matt said and pointed at the sheet lying on the coffee table.

Al glanced at it and turned his gaze back to Matt, "Isn't that your hockey sign up sheet? I thought it was due two weeks from now."

"It is but I didn't want to accidentally forget about it or something stupid like that," Matt said. He sat up and put the sheet of paper back in a folder where it was safe. "Besides, dad and papa need to know about it so they can take me in for a doctors appointment."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Al wrinkled his nose, "I was blocking out the bad memories."

"It's just the waiting that sucks, drama queen," Matt said. He got up and slung his backpack over one of his shoulders. Matt went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple, Al followed him but went straight for the chips.

"You're going to wither away if you only eat fruit," Al said and grabbed a handful of his snack. Matt opened his mouth to speak and Al pointed at him. "If you say 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away' I will have to kill you."

Matt laughed. "Actually I was going to tell you to suck it because I'm going to live longer than you."

Matt waved the apple in Al's face and Al swatted his hand away. Matt moved out of the kitchen and went into his room. Before he shut the door he heard the click of the TV and some mind numbing television show began to play. 

Matt threw his backpack onto the bed and followed it, limply falling into the covers and squirming around until he was wrapped in the duvet. He sighed and closed his eyes. He considered taking a nap but his mind was buzzing too much for that to happen. He sat up, blanket still on his shoulders, and sifted through his backpack until he found a homework sheet he could work on. He did all the homework that he was assigned and he lost himself for a little while in numbers. He was able to calm himself about the anticipation of try outs after that. 

When he was done with his hour of homework he joined Al out in the living room. He was watching The Big Bang Theory and Matt happily joined him. They were able to get an episode in before the lock to the front door jiggled and Francis stepped in. 

"Hey pop," Al said and discreetly moved his feet off of the coffee table.

"Bonjour, mes fils," Francis said and shut the door behind him. 

Matt shot up and went into his room. He grabbed the sheet that he needed and came back into the living room. Francis was sitting beside Al his head thrown back so that it was resting on the back of the couch. He had his eyes closed and he looked pretty tired. Matt wondered for a moment if he should bother his father right then. He obviously had a long day at work. Matt shrugged it off, he only had to scribble his signature on a sheet of paper twice.

Matt poked the top of Francis' head and he opened his eyes. Matt came around to the side of the couch and held the paper in front of him.

"Could you sign this papa?" Matt asked.

Francis nodded and scanned the sheet. He smiled. "So you want to join the hockey team?"

"Yeah. Is that- is that alright?" Matt asked.

"Of course. Give me a pen and I'll sign it," Francis said and set the paper on the table in front of him. Matt took a pen from out of his pocket. He had been ready to offer it to his father already.

Francis scratched across the sheet a couple of times before returning both items to Matt.

"Thank you," Matt said, beaming.

Francis smiled, "I'll sign anything if it gets you to look that happy mon cher."

Al scoffed and Matt returned Francis' smile. Matt carefully returned the paper back to the folder that he had been storing it in and joined his family in the living room. Arthur joined them a little while later and they had a nice family evening.

The rest of the weeks passed by slowly for Matt. His initial excitement waned a little bit over time, as all things do, but he was still burning with anticipation. He knew he had to get through try outs first before he could become a part of the team but just the idea of skating around the rink was enough for him. He liked skating, he had done it many times before. He liked it so much that he even dragged his friend Carlos along to skate one time. The boy didn't really get a hold of it though and shrugged, saying that he liked warm weather better anyways and wouldn't need to know how to ice skate.

Matt remembered the memory fondly and he reminisced about his times with Carlos a little more before he was patted on the shoulder. Today was the day of his long awaited try outs and he was surprised that he had let himself drift off. He looked towards the person that the hand was attached to. It was their coach, or for now the person who would be picking who made it onto the team.

He smiled at Matt, "You're smiling awfully broadly. Are you excited to get out there?"

Matt nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, sir."

"Good," the coach said, "We need some boys who are gung ho about hockey."

Matt smiled, he hoped his enthusiasm earned him points with the coach. He sat on a rough wooden bench and watched the other people skate around on the ice, hitting pucks into the nets. Matt watched them closely and took note of their different skills, comparing himself to them.

The whistle blew and a rough pat on his shoulder told Matt that he was the next up. He stood up and balanced himself on the skates expertly. He walked over to the rink and set his feet onto the ice carefully. Once stable, he glided across the smooth surface and stopped in front of the pucks that were lined up.

He raised his hockey stick and struck the first puck with a  _whack_. He quickly hit the rest of them after that. Aiming carefully enough so that all of them made it into the net. He finished the line swiftly. The coach instructed him to skate around the rink with someone else so he could evaluate how well he could maneuver the ice.

Matt skated around the rink as quickly as he could, enjoying himself immensely. He liked the feeling of the artificially cold air whipping across his face as he skated circles around the other person. He liked how smoothly the ice felt under his feet. It was so smooth that he felt like if he closed his eyes he might feel like he was flying. But he refrained from letting his eyelids droop shut. He had to watch the other person closely so he could make the right turns and the abrupt changes in direction when he needed to.

After a few minutes of flying around the rink the whistle was blown again and Matt made his way back to the roughly carpeted ground outside of the rink. Someone pulled him aside and told him that it was okay to leave since he had nothing else to do. He was told that he would get a call in a couple days so he could know his results. But nothing else was told to him and it worried him a little bit. He wasn't sure if it was normal or not that he didn't get any feedback whatsoever.

Matt took off his skates and put his normal, everyday shoes back on. He called Arthur and told him that his try outs were over.

When he got home he could hardly stay still. He kept agonizing over the results that he might get and his thoughts kept returning to places that he would rather not have them be. It kept nagging at him that he just might not have been good enough to get onto the team. He paced back and forth in his bedroom and tried to distract himself by calling Carlos. His friend was always there for him when he was worried. Carlos had listened to Matt when he was worried about Al during their freshman year and even as far back as when he thought he wouldn't be able to keep Hero.

Carlos was a constant in Matt's life and he was glad to have him to talk to. Of course he returned the favor for Carlos. He could never take Carlos' kindness and not return it. That was how their friendship was maintained, through helping each other through tough times. Carlos was his best friend and Matt was glad that he was in his life, always helping him along and he was glad to help Carlos too.

Matt went through his days of waiting for a call from the hockey coach that way. He relied on his homework and Carlos to distract him so that he wouldn't stress himself out with his own thoughts.

Then the day came when Matt received a call from an unfamiliar number. He grew excited when he saw it but calmed himself down. He knew it could just be a prank caller or a person who had a wrong number. Now with calm thoughts he swiped his thumb across the screen of his phone and held it up to his ear.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Yes, hello, is this Matthew Kirkland-Bonnefoy?" a male voice asked.

"Yes, this is he," Matt said, copying the formal tone that he had heard his parents use on the phone before. The fact that the man knew his name excited him. There was definitely no way that it was a wrong number, he was certain.

"Hi, I just wanted to congratulate you and say that you made it onto the hockey team," the man said cheerfully. "We'll be holding the first practice in a couple of weeks. We'll call you at a later date and give you a more definite time."

"Okay, thank you for taking the time to call me and tell me about it," Matt said, fighting his urge to shout victoriously.

"Of course. Again, we'll call you at a later date. Have a good day."

"You too," Matt said and hung up the phone. He allowed himself a moment of silence to fully process what had just happened. His smile grew by the second and he felt that shout growing even more present in his throat.

Finally he jumped into the air a little with a loud " _yes!_ _"._ He threw his phone onto his bed and did a little dance around his room. He heard footsteps outside of his doorway and Arthur swung the door open.

"Are you okay? I heard a shout," Arthur said worriedly and gave his son a once over. 

Matt rushed over to his father and gripped his shoulders, grinning broadly. "I did it. I got into the hockey team!"

Arthur's eyes widened for a moment and then he was smiling too. "That's great! I'm so happy for you Mattie."

Matt let his hands slip off of his father's shoulders. He was bouncing on his feet a little bit in his excitement.

Matt gasped as he realized something. "I have to tell papa, Al and Carlos."

He rushed out of his room and went into the living room. Francis and Al were lounging on the couch. Francis was watching some French film and Al was being forced into doing his homework. Of course he probably wouldn't have payed attention to the movie that was playing even if he didn't have homework. Matt snuck up behind them and stuck his head between theirs.

"Guess what?" he said abruptly.

"Fuck!" Al exclaimed, jumping into the air. "Jesus, Matt, quit sneaking up on me like that. I'm going to have a heart attack one day because of you."

"Language," Francis and Arthur said simultaneously. Al rolled his eyes, earning him a light smack on his shoulder from Francis. 

"What is it mon cher?" Francis asked, directing his attention to Matt.

"I got onto the hockey team!" Matt announced. Francis smiled and brought Matt's hands into his.

"That's wonderful Matthew!" Francis exclaimed. Matt got a nice high five from Al before he returned to his homework.

After a few more minutes of excited talk with his parents he excused himself.

"I have to tell Carlos too," Matt said.

"Yeah, you can't forget to tell your boyfriend about these important things," Al teased while chewing on the end of his pencil. He was working on a particularly hard math problem at the moment. But he was still present enough in the conversation around him to poke fun at his brother. 

Matt felt his face heat up, "He's my best friend  _not_ my boyfriend." 

"Yeah right," Al said with a snort, "The way you've been looking at him his last few visits begs to differ."

Matt scoffed and walked down the hallway back to his bedroom. He said over his shoulder before he was out of ear-shot, "He's not my boyfriend."

He heard Al giggle behind him and heard the beginnings of Al's lecture about picking on his brother. Matt smirked and shut the door to his bedroom before throwing himself on his bed. He squirmed underneath the feeling of his phone poking into his back from the place where it rested. Matt reached behind him so that his arm was at an awkward angle but succeeded in grabbing his phone with minimal movement of the rest of his body.

He held it up and scrolled through his small contacts list until he reached Carlos' name. He called him and waited a little impatiently for his friend to pick up the phone. Matt only had to wait a little while before he heard his friend's voice crackling down the line.

"Hey Matt," Carlos said.

"Hey," Matt replied, "I have news."

"Based off of your excited voice I'm going to assume that it's good," Carlos said and Matt could practically  _hear_ the smile on his face.

"It is good, very good," Matt said cheerfully. He paused for dramatic effect, "I got onto the hockey team! They called me a little while ago and told me."

"Wow! That's sweet! We have to celebrate," Carlos said.

Matt laughed, "We don't have to. Just come over or something."

"Alright," Carlos said. "I'll be over in half an hour. Am I staying the night?"

"Hang on one sec," Matt said and hefted himself out of the bed. He cracked the door open and shouted down the hallway, "Dad? Papa? Is it okay if Carlos stays the night?"

A moment later Arthur shouted back, "Yep. That's fine."

"Ooooh, staying the night is he?" Al shouted to Matt.

Matt rolled his eyes and shut himself back into his room. He brought the phone back to his ear.

"Yep. Looks like you can stay the night," Matt replied.

"Alright, see you in a little bit then," Carlos said.

"See ya," Matt replied and hung up.

Matt messed around on the computer for the half hour that he waited for his friend. Finally there was a knock on the door and Carlos was being greeted by Arthur. Matt got off the computer and found his friend already letting himself into Matt's room.

"Hey," Matt said.

Carlos jumped a little, "Geez, how are you so quiet all the time?"

Matt chuckled, "Maybe you all just have bad hearing."

"You all? I take it I'm not the first person to tell you this today," Carlos said and threw his stuff onto a random spot on the floor.

"Hate to say it but you're in the same category as Al today," Matt said, sitting on the bed beside Carlos. Carlos groaned and Matt laughed at his predictable reaction.

"So what do you have in store for us tonight?" Carlos said.

"I don't know, you're the guest," Matt said.

"Well, I don't know either. You choose, you live here," Carlos retorted.

Matt thought about it for a moment before speaking, "Harry Potter marathon?"

"Do you have ice cream?" Carlos asked.

"One gallon of chocolate ice cream and two large spoons are calling our names," Matt replied.

"Let's do this. Marathoning is my favorite pass time. As long as there's no running involved," Carlos said and followed Matt into the kitchen.

"You and me both," Matt replied and dug out the ice cream from the freezer while Carlos got the spoons.

Everyone else had gone off to do their own thing so Matt and Carlos got the living room to themselves. They watched as many movies as they could before they both ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Matt woke up with a stiff neck and a slightly aching back. His cheek was resting on Carlos' shoulder. Carlos was still fast asleep. They both had blankets draped crookedly across their bodies. Matt assumed that one of his parents had come out during the night and found them asleep like this. Matt yawned and stretched before standing up. Carlos leaned over to one side without Matt's weight holding him up and Matt smiled at the sight. He really did look cute when he slept. Matt caught at his stray thought and felt his face turn red.

Matt went into the kitchen and made himself a bowl of cereal before shuffling back into the living room. Carlos was rubbing at his eyes and Matt sacrificed his bowl of cereal for his friend. He handed it over to Carlos and his friend thanked him before taking a bite. Matt went back into the kitchen to make another bowl for himself and plopped himself back on the couch next to Carlos after that. He looked at Carlos from the corner of his eye and wondered at the thought he had before going into the kitchen.

Carlos' phone buzzed and he searched for it in the couch for a moment. He pulled it out from a crack in between the cushions, holding it up like a trophy. He looked at the text that was sent to him and he sighed.

"It's only eleven," he complained.

"Do you have to go home?" Matt asked, standing up ad taking his and Carlos' bowls.

"Yeah," Carlos said and stood up with Matt. Matt went into the kitchen and Carlos went into Matt's room to gather his things. They both met up in the living room again. Carlos had his backpack slung on one of his shoulders. They talked a little more before Carlos' phone buzzed again.

Matt didn't need words to know it was his mother who texted him. They both walked to slowly to the front door. Matt leaned against the wall closest to the door.

"See ya," Matt said.

"Bye," Carlos said and hesitated when his hand touched the doorknob. He pulled back and walked to Matt in one long stride. They stared at each other for a little while. Matt looked at Carlos confusedly and he wasn't sure how Carlos was looking at him.

Carlos leaned forward and Matt's eyes widened. Was Carlos going to... kiss him? Carlos did kiss him, but it was only a light peck on the cheek.

He left in a hurry after that and Matt was alone with his whirlwind of thoughts. Matt straightened and touched his cheek with his fingertips. He felt a blush grow on his face and he still felt like he could feel Carlos' soft lips on his cheek. His stomach twisted and he thought about what Al had said about the way that Matt had been looking at Carlos. Then it hit him. Did he really think about his best friend that way?

"Crap," Matt muttered. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew needs to sort out some stuff. What will he do about his new found feelings for his best friend?

It had been three weeks. Three weeks since Carlos had kissed Matt's cheek and left. Three weeks since Matt realized that he may just have feelings for his best friend. His first hockey practice had come and gone already and now he knows that his feelings are there. He's had enough time to think about it. They hadn't met up in person since then but they still called and texted each other and every time Matt heard Carlos' voice he'd listen to the way that it dropped and rose again like a wave. He found himself following a pattern of thought that would almost always lead up to Carlos.

Matt thought it was funny how some offhand comment from his brother had made him realize just how much he thought of Carlos. He even found some of his thought patterns to be familiar, like a nicely worn trail and he wondered how often he had thought of Carlos before he had realized his feelings. He wondered what it was on his face that gave his feelings away and how long they had been there, hiding from him in his own body.

Matt stood outside of his brother's room, fist just barely touching the wood of the door. He didn't know whether or not he should knock. This was new. He had always gone to Carlos when he was facing a problem before, but he couldn't be there for him this time and Matt didn't know who to turn to besides Al. He would rather avoid a talk with his parents about his crush.

Matt finally brought himself to wrap his knuckles on the door and open it a moment later. Al raised his head and pulled an ear-bud from his ear.

"What's up?" Al asked.

"C-can I talk to you?" Matt asked, tugging on the curl in his hair.

"Okay," Al said. Matt sat himself in Al's desk chair and brought his feet up so he could sit cross legged.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Al asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"It-it's something about," Matt paused and gathered his thoughts, "You know- about crushes."

"Oh," Al said and smirked. "So who have you got the hots for?"

He couldn't do this. There was no way he could tell his brother that he had a crush on his best friend.

"No one, it's one of my friends. He has a crush on his best friend but he doesn't know whether or not he should pursue these feelings or not."

Al rolled his eyes. "Cut the crap Matt. That whole 'well this isn't about me but my friend' thing doesn't work. It doesn't even work in the  _movies_."

Matt sighed and tugged on his curl again. "So? Then what do I do?"

"So you like Carlos huh? Can't say I'm surprised," Al said and Matt threw a pencil from the desk at him.

"Don't be an ass about it, just help me," Matt pleaded. 

"Alright, alright," Al said and seemed to turn serious. "So does he like you back?'

Matt stopped twirling his hair and looked at his brother with wide eyes. "I-I don't know."

Al slapped the palm of his hand to his forehead. "Alright so you don't know whether or not he likes you back. Let's see... Did he ever do something that'll give you hints about his feelings?"

"Well, he did kiss my cheek before he left the last time we met up," Matt explained. "But then again when we call each other he acts like it didn't happen. Our conversations don't seem to have changed from normal."

"Really?" Al said thoughtfully. "Yeah, pretty sure he likes you back."

"How did you come to that conclusion? I barely told you anything."

"Let me tell you a thing Matt. No matter how good of a friend you are with another guy, they usually don't kiss your cheek as a goodbye."

"Right so a kiss on the cheek isn't what guy friends do but a slapping each other's asses is cool?"

"It's a friendly butt tap. It's for encouragement."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Okay then can I ask you something else?"

"Shoot."

"How do you- you know- ask someone out."

Al shrugged. "Dunno, I've always been the one who was asked out. Never had to actually do it myself."

"Al, quit bragging and give me a straight answer."

"I feel like 'straight' is the wrong word to use for the answer you're looking for."

"I  _will_ throw another pencil at you."

Al smiled and turned serious again a moment later. "Just tell him how you feel dude. Take a gamble. If he likes you back you can figure it out from there. If he doesn't like you in that way then, hey, you'll still have a best friend. He doesn't seem like the type to abandon a friend just because they're gay."

Matt nodded. Al was right. There was no sense in contemplating every single outcome. He had to take action and just tell Carlos how he felt. Matt got up and went out the door with a hurried thank you to Al. He went into his room and grabbed his phone. He went through his contacts list until he came across a familiar name. Carlos. Matt's thumb was poised over the call button... but he couldn't seem to do it. No matter how hard he tried he could't seem to bridge the gap between the pad of his thumb and the glass screen of his phone.

Matt closed his eyes and breathed out. He let his thumb slip down until he felt it bump against his phone screen. He brought it up to his ear and heard it begin to call Carlos. He waited. One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

"Hey," Carlos greeted him.

"We need to talk," Matt said, getting straight to the point before he lost his nerve.

"Go on then."

"I-in person. It would be better that way."

"...Alright."

"Could we meet up, like right now? At the park?" Matt asked referring to the park that he and Carlos always went to.

"Yeah. See you then."

Click. The call was over. Al sighed and went to find one of his parents. He found Francis and asked him for a ride. When they got to the park Matt told Francis that he would call when he was ready to be picked up and then he was off.

He wandered around for a little bit until he saw him. Carlos was leaning against a tree. He was tapping his foot, a nervous habit that he had. Matt let his feet carry him over to Carlos but his mind didn't seem to be with him. It didn't feel real, what he was about to do.

"H-h-hey Carlos," Matt said when he was in front of his friend.

Carlos lifted his head and smiled. "Hey, it's been a while."

"Yeah," Matt said and twirled his curl around his finger. There was an awkward silence. 

"So what did you want to talk about that was so important?"

"It-it's about what happened the last time we met up."

Carlos stood up straight. "Oh, you know I- I don't know what happened. It kind of just-"

Matt cut him off. "It made me realize that I like you."

There was a stunned silence from Carlos' end and Matt felt like shrinking in on himself until he disappeared. He couldn't bring himself to meet Carlos' eyes and instead stared at the ground. He felt like a middle school girl asking out her crush.

"You- you like me back?" Carlos asked.

Matt snapped his head up. "Back? Do you mean that- that you like me too?"

They both stared at each other with the mouths hanging slightly open in disbelief. Carlos finally took a tentative step forward and grabbed Matt's hands. Matt felt his face heat up and he wished he could hide behind his palms. Carlos leaned forward and they were close enough that their noses almost bumped.

Matt decided to take another risk and closed the gap between them. Carlos' lips were soft against his. It felt a little weird to kiss his best friend at first but he forgot about that when Carlos rested his hands shakily just above Matt's hips. Matt moved closer and they stayed like that for a few more seconds before finally pulling apart.

They both chuckled nervously. Matt moved his hands up from Carlos' arms to his shoulders. 

"Wow. I can't believe that actually happened," Carlos said.

"Me neither," Matt said with a soft smile.

"Want to take a walk?" Carlos asked. Matt nodded and he felt his right hand become wrapped in warmth. He looked down and saw that Carlos was holding it. They went to walk around the park and ended up staying for three hours. Talking and kissing before they both went home giddy with disbelief. Matt almost didn't want to go to sleep, fearing that it might all go away when he woke up. But sleepiness forced his eyelids to close.

When he woke up in the morning he immediately called Carlos.

"Did we actually get together yesterday?" Matt asked.

"Why yes we did," Carlos replied cheerfully.

"Oh okay," Matt said with a wide grin. So it wasn't a dream.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al lands himself in the hospital and meets an old friend there.

Francis and Arthur sat in the stands with Matthew. There was roaring all around them but they didn't pay it too much attention. It was far enough in Al's football game for them to have gotten used to it. They had gone to enough games anyway for it not to be too much of a problem anymore. Francis' ears didn't even ring after games like they used to. A touchdown for Al and Matt's school was won and Francis stood up and cheered with the rest of the stands, even Arthur joined in. Francis sat when the players were about to pass the ball around again. He pulled his jacket around himself tightly, trying to keep the cold out. At least it wasn't snowing like it had been the day before. Francis had been more than a little worried when he heard his son would be playing such a rough sport after a snow storm like the one they had but the field looked pretty clear and safe to him at the moment.

Francis watched the red number seventy-six streak across the field. That was Al. He had the same number on his back that he had had in the little league. Francis let out a small smile at the memory. He couldn't believe how tall Al had grown since then and how much he had matured. He had grown into a handsome man and so had Matthew.

Francis leaned forward in his seat a little bit when Al was passed the ball. Arthur had scooted all the way to the edge of his seat and was just barely hanging off of it. He kind of looked like he was levitating because his perch was so close to the air. Matt was sitting at attention too, watching his brother closely. Francis saw a very tall, very big guy run across the field to Al. Francis waited for Al to see the boy and to dodge him but he wasn't. The other boy was coming in at an angle that prevented Al from seeing him. His helmet blocked part of his peripheral and when Al finally turned his head enough to see if anyone was coming it was too late.

The other boy tried to slow down enough so that they wouldn't seriously injure one another when they collided but his foot slipped on a slick patch of grass. He flailed his arms but it did nothing to stop him from flying into Al's side. Al was thrown to the ground and he was still. Francis stood up but so did everyone else and people's heads blocked his view. He scooted past the people that were blocking him in his seat with mumbled apologies. His eyes were trained on the field, looking for anything that would give away how his son was.

Al will be fine. He'll be just fine. He'll be standing up when I next see him. Francis chanted those sentences in his head as he finally got to stairs between the seats. His view was as clear as it was going to get. There was a circle of teenagers on the field who were talking amongst themselves, occasionally exchanging worried glances. The referee shoved past them all and motioned for them to spread out.

Francis found himself at the bottom of the steps and in front of the stands, hanging over the railing that separated him from his son. Arthur was beside him and Matt clutched at his sleeve from his other side. Francis watched on, feeling his nervousness and concern growing by the second. Arthur was tense beside him and it didn't help with Francis' nerves.

When the football players broke apart to let the ref in Francis caught a glimpse of Al. He was sitting up and clutching at his knee, his face contorted. Francis let himself take a moment to feel relief before he was worried again. That look of pain on Al's face, he didn't like it, not one bit. A moment later the crowd of boys separated and Al hobbled out.

One of his legs was lifted so that his foot wasn't touching the ground and he was leaning heavily against the referee. There were cheers in the crowd when people saw that Al was okay enough to walk. Al forced a smile and lifted his hand in a wave.

Behind him the boy who had run into him was being led outside of the stadium behind Al. He was holding his arm just above the wrist and his hand was hanging down limply.

Francis felt Arthur grab for his hand and then he was being dragged outside of the stadium. Matthew was following them closely. They weaved in and out of the crowd and those who recognized Al's family gave them pitying looks. They pushed past people in a rush and finally broke outside after what felt like an eternity. They looked around frantically and saw Al slouching on a bench with his eyes closed.

The other boy now had his helmet off and Francis could see his beige hair and purple eyes. He looked like he wanted to talk to Alfred but he stayed back. He kept glancing over to them and would occasionally take a step forward only to take that step back. He was being spoken to by a large breasted woman and then dragged off to the parking lot. His eyes kept going over to Al but Al never noticed him once. 

Francis and Arthur rushed forward and Al was swept into Arthur's arms as much as he could in his position. Arthur sat to the side of him and pushed his hair back.

"Hey guys," Al said with a smile.

"Has an ambulance been called yet?" Arthur asked, casting a glance to Al's coach. He had taken over with caring for the boys since the ref had to go back into the stadium to watch over the rest of the game.

"Yes, I already called, they'll be here shortly," Coach Ludwig answered.

Arthur sighed and worried over Al some more. He straightened his shirt and pushed his bangs out of his face countless times before Al grabbed his wrist.

"Dad, I'm  _fine_. You don't have to keep fussing over me," Al said.

"We can't help but worry," Francis said gently. "You didn't look so well out there."

Al huffed. "I'm fine. Barely even felt anything."

"So you won't mind if I tap your foot right now?" Matt asked. He moved his own foot forward just a little bit but didn't actually touch his brother. Al made a face and Matt made a face back. Finally, the ambulance arrived and a stretcher was carried out for Al.

He groaned. "Do I really have to get onto a stretcher? My leg is only hurting a little bit."

One of the paramedics helped him into the gurney and answered his question. "We don't want to take any chances, this is just a precaution."

"As long as I don't get put into a neck brace, it's fine see?" Al moved his head side to side before he was forced to lay down and get strapped into the gurney.

"It's more of a shock thing but I think we can leave it out this one time," the same paramedic said.

"Do you want one of us to ride in the ambulance with you?" Francis asked before Al was carted away.

"No it's okay. I'll meet you guys at the hospital," Al said with a wave of his hand.

Francis, Arthur and Matt all drove to the hospital in their little car. They had been told the hospital they were to go to and sped towards it. Francis and Arthur were pretty tense and Matthew was the one to tell them to calm down, even though he himself looked a little worried.

When they finally arrived at the hospital the little family went flying down the halls and to the check in desk where they asked to see Al. Of course he was busy getting checked by the doctor so they were all subjected to sitting in the waiting room and flipping through old magazines.

* * *

Al was sitting on a hospital bed. He had to remove his pants so the doctor could see the full extent of the damage. He was sure he didn't want to do  _that_ again any time soon. The fabric of the pants had brushed against his bruises uncomfortably and the tightness of them squeezed against his hurting leg, making it throb even more.

Now the doctor was brushing his shin, trying not to jostle his leg as much as he could. He finally gave Al a hospital gown and instructed him to put it on so they could go to x-rays. Al removed the rest of his football gear and dumped them to the tiled floor next to his bed before stuffing his arms into the sleeves. In Al's opinion it was much more like a snuggie instead of a gown. 

 He was gathered by a nurse and was wheeled to the room where he would receive his x-ray. It was over with quickly and he returned to the room he was originally in. The doctor had stayed behind and was looking over the results as Al was being put back into the hospital bed. He lowered the bed so that he was laying down after the nurse left. He was bored. He wished he had gotten his phone before going into the ambulance. He had asked his parents to hold onto it for him and it was still in their car. He was sure that his family was at the hospital by now and were just barred from seeing him until the doctor had come.

As if on cue his family walked into the door of his room when he was thinking about them. Arthur pulled a chair up beside Al's bed and grabbed his hand. Al didn't like that. Especially here in a hospital, he felt like he was going to get bad news when his dad looked at him like that.

"What did the doctor say?" Arthur asked.

"He said that I only had a week to live," Al answered without missing a beat.

Arthur removed his hand from Al's only to smack it. "Don't joke about that."

"Alright, alright," Al said. "i don't know what he said he hasn't come back yet."

Francis pulled up a chair beside Arthur and rubbed his hand over the back Arthur's shoulders.

"Calm down mon amour, we'll be told what's going to happen in a little bit," Francis said. Arthur relaxed and sat back. Matt stood behind them and leaned against the wall. After a few minutes of silence the doctor came in with a hurried knock. He was holding some papers and shuffled through them until he got to the foot of Al's bed.

"I have your results," the doctor said. He held up the papers in his hand. "So it seems that you have a tibial shaft fracture, which is a fracture to your shin. We think that we're going to treat it with a long leg cast for three to five weeks then you can come back in and put on a short leg cast for the remaining time that it will take for your leg to heal."

Al nodded. "Okay. So am I going to be getting the cast right now?"

"Well that's another thing," the doctor said. "We can only put the cast on when the swelling from your leg goes down. So it'll have to be tomorrow or the next day. For now we're just going to keep you overnight to make sure that no further damage is done to your leg."

Al groaned. "Fine."

"Okay then, I'll be back in tomorrow afternoon to check on the swelling. A nurse will come in to stabilize your leg for the night later on," the doctor said and with that he was gone.

Arthur stood up, "Well your father and I need to talk in the hallway, we'll be right back."

Al's parents exited the room and shut the door gently behind them, leaving Matt and Al alone. Matt sat in the chair that Arthur had been sitting in and crossed his legs. His knees rested against the armrests of the chair. Al suddenly felt like crossing his legs would be a really comfy position to be in at the moment. Now that he could no longer do that he really wished he could.

"Lucky bastard, you can actually cross your legs. I wish I could cross my legs," Al complained.

"That sounds like a personal problem," Matt said. Matt slid his feet to the ground and he was sitting normally again.

Al sighed. "I really hate it here. It's totally white  _everywhere_ I don't have my phone and I can't cross my legs."

"It's not too bad. All the nurses are hot. It's like a given here that if any nurse is a guy he's immediately gorgeous," Matt said.

"Wow, Matt and here I was thinking that you had a boyfriend," Al teased. Matt looked to the ground. But it wasn't wistful or blush-y like Al would have expected. It was more troubled and Al wondered what was going on with Matt. But then he raised his head and smiled.

"Of course I do and you're still rocking the single life," Matt said.

"Um in case you've forgotten I totally lost it when I _wasn't_ rocking the single life. I think I'm okay with having nobody to date for years in all honesty," Al said.

"Single is single. We're in the eleventh grade now, it's been like a year which is enough time for me to make fun of you for not having a girlfriend and feel good about it. Besides you're my brother. It's my job to point out all the things that I have that you don't," Matt said, smirking.

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Al retorted. Their parents shuffled back into the room.

"Matt I'm going to drop you off at home and pick up a few things and come back here," Francis said.

"Okay," Matt said and lifted himself out of his seat. He waved goodbye to Al.

"See ya," Al said before the door to his room closed. Arthur sank into the chair with a sigh. "You know dad, you don't have to stay here for the night."

"Of course I do. I'm not going to leave my son alone at night in a hospital," Arthur replied. Al just nodded. He knew there was no way he could talk his dad out of something once he made his mind up. There was a soft knock on the door and Arthur yelled out, "Come in."

The door creaked open hesitantly and someone stepped in.

"I'm really sorry. I know visiting hours are over but I just got back from putting my cast on and I couldn't stand going away without at least apologizing."

Al looked at the face of the person who was speaking and his jaw dropped.

"Ivan?" 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al must work through forgiving Ivan. For middle school and for his leg. Ivan ends up coming over to his house and Al creates a new relationship with Ivan that he never would have thought he was capable of.

"Ivan?" Al said, unable to believe his eyes. "W-what are you doing here?"

"I came to apologize. I was the one who ran into you," Ivan said, looking down at the ground. He seemed... timid. That didn't at all fit the Ivan that Al had known in middle school. Al remembered Ivan as being an asshole who bullied him for no apparent reason.

"Oh," Al said weakly and looked down at his hands. He was wringing them together nervously. Arthur looked between the two boys and stood up.

"I'm going to call your father," Arthur said to Al, "I forgot to tell him to pick up something."

Al nodded and Arthur snuck past Ivan and went out the door, closing it behind him. Ivan shuffled a little closer and Al wanted to shrink into himself. He didn't want Ivan any closer. All those things that he had said to Al a long time ago flashed through his mind. Al pulled the blanket up high enough to cover his shoulders, creating a make-shift shield between Ivan and himself.

"S-so are you going to leave now or-?" Al said, eyes flicking towards the door.

Ivan took a step forward. "Please let me make it up to you."

Al blinked in surprise. "How do you plan to do that? You don't exactly have any magic healing powers to speed up how my leg heals."

"I don't know. I just- I don't only feel bad for what happened tonight. I feel bad for what happened in middle school. Looking back on it I see what an ass I was and I feel really bad," Ivan said in a rush.

"Oh so it's a guilt thing huh?" Al said bitterly. "You just want to lift this guilt off your shoulders so that  _you_ can feel better." _  
_

Ivan's shoulders sagged. "No-no that's not what I was trying to do," he said weakly. His lack of trying to defend himself made Al wonder just how bad he felt for everything. He didn't exactly picture _Ivan_ being the sorry type. But all the evidence in front of him told him that this was definitely the case. _  
_

Al sighed and ran a hand through his hair. How was he supposed to respond to this? The person who gave him the hardest time in middle school had just come crawling to his hospital room and asked for forgiveness. Well he didn't exactly ask for forgiveness did he? He never outwardly said that that was what he was looking for. So maybe- maybe he _did_ just want to make things easier for Al.

"Alright do you have a phone?" Al asked. Ivan looked up from his shoes and at all. His eyes were glowing with happiness.

"Yeah," he said and reached into his pocket. He handed Al his phone and Al entered his number in.

"My names Al, just in case you've forgotten," Al said and handed the phone back to it's owner.

"I haven't forgotten," Ivan said. Something about the way he said it was a little weird to Al but he forgot about it. Maybe he hadn't thought he would get this far in his redemption.

"Just text me whenever," Al said.

"I'll do it later tonight," Ivan said and waved as he went back outside into the hallway. Arthur came back into the room a moment later.

"Why did you abandon me? It was pretty obvious you didn't need to call pop," Al asked tiredly.

"It looked like you two needed to talk privately," Arthur said with a shrug. 

"Could have done without that," Al said. He lowered his bed so that he was lying down. He wanted to scoot down and put his head in the middle of the puffy pillows but he couldn't. It was really frustrating to him to not be able to move freely. It was going to be a long wait for his leg to heal.

"Don't be too hard on him Al," Arthur said gently. "It was an accident. No one's at fault."

"A lot of making me feel like shit in the eighth grade was his fault though," Al mumbled. As soon as the words left his mouth Al wanted to take them back. No one knew about how bad it was except for Matt. He never even told Kiku or Tony. Well, yeah he told them that the kids at his new school were assholes but nothing beyond that. Al was about to twist his body so that his back was to Arthur but remembered that that would be a very, very bad idea.

"What happened in middle school?" Arthur asked. Al shrugged. Arthur opened his mouth to speak again but Al was saved by a nurse who walked in. She told them what she was going to do before getting to work. When she was done, Al's leg was cold from some salve that the nurse put over his leg but the rough bandages were quickly warming it up. His leg was also so secure that there was no way that he could ever move it. Al closed his eyes and moved his head to the side. The silence in the room was palpable and Al cracked one of his eyes open. He could pretty much see that Arthur was having an internal debate with himself and Al was pretty sure he knew what it was about.

"Don't worry about the eighth grade. That was forever ago," Al said and yawned at the end of his sentence.

Arthur shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. "Is it so wrong to want to know more about my son's life?"

Al opened his eyes all the way this time and looked at his father. Arthur's lips were pursed and he was staring hard at the ground.

Al sighed. "I just didn't want you to worry."

Arthur looked up and offered a small smile. "Bit late for that."

Al chuckled. "Yeah I guess so."

Arthur looked at Al's leg. "This one really worried me. It makes everything else seem smaller than it did at the time. You and Matt have such dangerous sports, sometimes the tension of the game isn't the only thing that's nerve wracking. There's always a risk of one of you getting hurt like when Matt lost a tooth and broke his wrist in a fall. How many times have you two broken a finger now? Twice or three times each? Not to mention the countless cuts and bruises you come home with after each practice and game. I guess what I'm saying here is that I'm already really worried about your brother and you. It's my job to be worried. In fact, not telling me anything makes me even more worried. Your father and I are here to help you whenever you need it and we try so hard to make you both hurt less but we can't do that if we don't know what's wrong."

"I get the feeling that you're not just talking about physical injuries," Al said. Arthur didn't reply. He only sat in his chair and looked at Al with sad eyes. "No other words that you want to say?"

"I'm done with my bit. It's your turn," Arthur said.

Al hesitated a moment. But he ultimately decided he should grant his father's wish. "It wasn't a fun time for me in the eighth grade after we moved. People bullied me and called me annoying all the time. A whole bunch of other names that I didn't even  _think_ applied to me were said too. I reached towards Ivan on the first day I think but it turned out that he was the worst. He made fun of me the most. He even punched me a few times and had a weird habit of pushing down on my head. I think that was all that made me crazy when when I finally became popular in high school. I mean people were  _finally_ treating me the way I had thought I should have been treated before moving and I didn't know how to deal. But yeah, I guess that's it."

Arthur rubbed Al's arm. "I'm sorry I didn't notice how much you were suffering."

"I wouldn't say that it was  _suffering_. I mean there are so many people who have it worse than me that I think that 'suffering' is an overstatement," Al said.

"Alfred, sadness is sadness. When you say you're really happy about something you don't deny that feeling because someone else is happier than you out there in the world do you? Justify your feelings because that's what you feel, not because your life isn't like someone else's," Arthur said gently.

Al smiled. "Okay dad."

After that Al closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. The events of the day had made him tired. First of all his football game and then his leg and then Ivan and then finally, _finally_ telling someone about what it was like in the eighth grade. It was all so much and Al was tired. He heard Francis come in at some point, bags rustling in the silent room. Al heard a chair being pulled up and Arthur and Francis began speaking in low voices. Al was half asleep though and couldn't fully process what they were saying. He couldn't really detect any worry or sadness in their voices from his drowsy state or else he would forced himself awake. No, they were just... talking. Al let himself drift to sleep, reassured that he wasn't causing his parents any distress.

* * *

Al had to wait for the doctor until the afternoon. Then he would get his cast on. During that time Al had gotten his phone back. True to his word Ivan had texted him during the night but Al had been asleep and had never replied he didn't reply but saved Ivan's number to his phone and decided that he would text Ivan again after he got his cast on. He played games on his phone and talked with his parents during that time. After last night Al and Arthur seemed to have gotten closer.

Arthur had made him talk to Francis about his eighth grade year and Francis embraced him apologizing over and over again. For what, Al wasn't completely sure but he assumed it was for the same reason Arthur had apologized last night as well. Alfred had hugged him back and told him that it was alright and it felt good, almost like walls that Al didn't even know had been up had suddenly been broken down and he could speak freely with his parents.

When the doctor had come in he had done everything he needed to check on the swelling of Al's leg. When he was done he straightened.

"It looks like we can put the cast on you right away," the doctor said cheerfully. Al was happy and they got started once all the materials for the cast were brought in. Of course, it took longer than Al thought it would. Waiting for the fiberglass to set and having the doctor hold his leg and lying down in awkward silence was the worst part in Al's opinion.

When it was done Al sat up. "When do I get these off again?" Al asked.

"Three to five weeks. Then after that we'll put you in a short leg cast for a little while," the doctor said.

"But I can get right back to playing football when the cast is off right?"

The doctor hesitated. "It would be best if you took a little time off from football to make sure that your leg heals completely, even after the cast comes off. I think it might be safe for you to play again towards October. If you want to play any earlier than that I would suggest talking to a doctor."

Al didn't like that he had to wait so long to get back into the game but he nodded. He was offered a pair of crutches and he scooted himself off of the bed. He pulled on some mesh shorts, not wanting to wear his horrible hospital gown any longer and put on a shirt. Francis had gotten the pieces of clothing from their home last night so Al was able to put those on.

Al left the hospital feeling a little upset. He had wanted to get back into playing football as quickly as he could, but there was no way he could do that with his busted leg. 

When they got to the car Al had some trouble getting in. He refused any help from his parents and struggled inside by himself. He shoved his crutches onto the space between the chairs and clambered in after them. He sat himself on the back seat and scooted back until his back was pressed against the opposite car door. His leg was stretched out in front of him and Arthur closed the door when he was sure that Al had settled. 

Al asked for his phone back. Due to his shorts not having any pockets Francis had been holding onto it for him as he hobbled out into the parking lot and struggled into the car. Francis handed it back to Al and he saw that he had a new message.

**From Ivan: Um if you're regretting giving me your number I just want to say that I'm sorry one more time. You can delete my number if you want.**

Al had forgotten to text Ivan back. He kind of felt bad for that but at the same time felt a cruel satisfaction in seeing that Ivan might be feeling really bad. He was mostly mad about the fact that he couldn't play football for so long because Ivan had run into him. But he remembered what Arthur had said the other night. It was only an accident and no one was at fault. **  
**

**To Ivan: srry i never replied, was getting cast put on and fell asleep early last night 2**

Al's phone buzzed almost a moment later and it kind of surprised Al how quickly Ivan had responded.

**From Ivan: oh... so it's ok to keep txting you??**

**To Ivan: ya ur good**

**From Ivan: ok good :)**

Seeing that the conversation was over Al didn't respond back and put his phone in his lap.

"Was that Tony or Kiku?" Arthur asked.

"No it was Ivan. I gave him my number last night," Al replied.

"Was that a good idea?" Francis asked.

"I'm not sure," Al said. From Arthur's inquiry Al had forgotten to tell them about what had happened. He opened Snapchat and took a picture of his cast. He sent it to Kiku and Tony and also uploaded the screenshot to Facebook. His phone buzzed. On it was a reply from Tony. He had captured himself in a very gorgeous pose that showed off the triple chin that he somehow was able to get. The caption was:

**nice going dumbass**

Of course. Any other response from Tony would have probably been surprising. Then Al's phone buzzed twice. On was from Kiku and the other was from Ivan. Both were text messages so Al read Kiku's first.

**From Weirdo: Ouch, are you alright now?**

**To Weirdo: yep all good**

**From Weirdo: good :)**

Done with that conversation Al went to the text that Ivan had sent him.

**From Ivan: so ur homecoming dance is tonight right? are you going?**

Crap. Al had completely forgotten about it. Yeah, there was no way that he was going to go. He couldn't dance with hid huge and clunky cast.

**To Ivan: no i think ill pass**

**From Ivan: what? you should go!**

**To Ivan: i cant exactly dance real well right now :/**

**From Ivan: oh... i'm really srry :(**

**To Ivan: dont sweat it it was an accident**

**From Ivan: give me ur** **address**

**To Ivan: wat for?**

**From Ivan: so i can come over?**

 Even over text Al could still detect the are-you-fucking-stupid tone that Ivan must be using. Geez, he got enough of that from Tony now Ivan too?

**To Ivan: y do u want to come over?**

**From Ivan: i feel bad for ruining the chances you had of going to the dance so can i pls make it up to you??**

Should he let Ivan come over? It wasn't like he'd known the guy all that long anyways. He had come into his hospital room just last night and aside from that he wasn't completely sure that he would be able to forgive Ivan for what happened in middle school. Forgetting was a whole different story, he had forgotten. He had gotten over it and then Ivan had come back. Now Al felt this bitterness again and he didn't like it. Maybe he _should_ invite Ivan over. If only so he could forget again and maybe work on that forgiveness too.

"Hey dad, pop? Is it okay if someone comes over tonight?" Al asked.

"Yeah, that's fine," Francis said. "Who is it going to be?"

"Ivan," Al replied. He was met by silence in the front seats but he didn't elaborate.

 **To Ivan: ya**   **ok**

Al sent his address to Ivan and they set up a time. He would come over at four o' clock.

* * *

The time passed kind of slowly for Al. Matt had left to go out with Carlos about an hour after he came home so he was mostly left to himself. He got onto the computer and played games and hopped onto Netflix for a while but he really couldn't seem to pay attention to anything. He was kind of nervous about Ivan coming over. What would they even talk about? How was he supposed to act? Was it okay to tell Ivan that he wasn't sure that he had forgiven him? 

He went over to his room and laid down on the mattress. His leg was propped up by a mountain of pillows. It was surprisingly comfortable and Al let his eyelids slip shut.

He was later awoken by the sound of knocking on his bedroom door. He opened his eyes and mumbled for the person to come in. He wasn't exactly sure if he said it loud enough for the person to hear him but his door opened slowly and in stepped a tall guy with a pink scarf.

Al sat up. "Hey."

"Hey," Ivan replied. He closed the door behind him but not all the way, just enough so that there was a small crack between the door and the frame. Ivan stood there awkwardly and Al motioned at the mattress and desk chair.

"You can sit down ya know," Al said. 

"Right," Ivan said. He sat on the desk chair. His back was straight and he looked a little nervous. 

"So..." Al said and scratched the back of his neck. "Um, what do you want to do?"

"Let's talk," Ivan said.

"O-okay," Al said and searched for a topic. "So what have you been up to since middle school?"

"Nothing really," Ivan said. "Really the only noteworthy thing is that I joined the football team this year, but I guess you kind of figured that out."

"Yeah, that does explain why I haven't seen you at any other games."

"So what about you?"

"I joined the football team in the ninth grade. From there I finally got some positive attention but then because of that I kind of turned into some horrible monster. But now I've mellowed out. I'm really good now. I'm close with my family and have the same two best friends that I've had since elementary school. I think I would be totally lost without them all."

Ivan looked down at his hands. " _Positive_ attention made you lose it? Was it because you were treated so horribly in the eighth grade?" Al didn't answer and Ivan nodded. "We really were horrible to you weren't we?' _  
_

Al shrugged. "I've mostly gotten over it. It would be kind of sad if I hadn't let it go after so long."

"I'm really sorry," Ivan said. He got up and moved to a part of the mattress that was empty, next to Al's hips. Ivan was careful not to touch the part of Al's leg that was bound up in the cast. He tried his best to perch on a place on the bed so that the mattress wouldn't sink too low and move his leg around either. Al was surprised at how careful Ivan was being with his movements. He didn't exactly look like that kind of guy.

"You don't have to keep apologizing. It's in the past, it's fine now," Al said.

Ivan laughed bitterly. "No it's not. I was so mean to you and for a reason that should have made me stupidly _nice_ to you."

Al wasn't sure what to do. He kind of wanted to reach out and reassure Ivan that it really was okay. Al stopped wracking his brains for a moment to process what he had just thought. It  _was_ okay. Right here the boy who had given him so much crap in the eighth grade was being weighed down with guilt so much. He didn't exactly like that sight though. Even though Ivan hadn't been the nicest person Al had known, he really didn't want to see a person being weighed down so much. In that moment Al knew he had forgiven Ivan.

Al grabbed Ivan's arm and the taller boy turned his head to look at Al.

"Ivan," Al said. " _I forgive you._ So stop with this. It's really fine."

Ivan stared at the mattress and Al worried for a moment that lasers might shoot out of Ivan's eyes. Then Ivan whispered something. It was so quiet that AL didn't catch what he was saying at all.

"Huh?" Al said.

"I like you," Ivan declared. He lifted his head. "I liked you in the eighth grade which is why I was so harsh to you. I have no idea _why_ but that's the truth. And seeing you again, it's kind of bringing back some of those feelings."

"Like you l-like like me?" Al asked. Ivan nodded and leaned forward. Before Al could fully understand what was happening lips were being pressed against his. Al was about to push Ivan away but his hands didn't seem to want to obey. Instead he just rested his hands on Ivan's shoulders and closed his eyes. He even leaned forward. Ivan finally broke their kiss after a little while and looked away.

"So are we boyfriends now?" Ivan asked.

"Wow, that was really straight to the point," Al said with a chuckle. "I mean I don't know. I kind of liked that kiss but does that really mean we should become boyfriends cause we both liked it?"

Ivan nodded. "So we should have sex first?"

Al's eyes widened. "What? N-no we don't have to... have sex."

"So what then?" Ivan asked.

"Now hold on," Al said and raised his hands. "Give me a little time. I don't know if I feel romantic feelings towards you or what yet. How about we start with a movie on Netflix okay?"

Ivan nodded and Al struggled out of his bed, knocking over a few pillows in the process. Ivan handed him his crutches and they went out into the living room. Arthur and Francis weren't in the living room so they were able to get the TV right away. Al started up Netflix and they both agreed on The Avengers.

Somewhere around the time Loki was yelling at everyone to kneel Al realized that his and Ivan's fingers were laced together and that his head was resting on Ivan's shoulder. He wondered when he had moved. It was comfy though so Al remained where he was and continued to watch the movie. When it was over Ivan scooted away.

"I think that I should get going," Ivan said.

Al was surprised at how disappointed he felt. "Oh. Alright."

Ivan seemed to hesitate after he had braced himself to get off of the couch. He leaned towards Al but then pulled away again. Al rolled his eyes and grabbed the Ivan's scarf and pulled him towards him. Al pecked him on the lips a few times before letting him go. He liked that. He really liked that he could kiss Ivan whenever he wanted. The kisses that he shared with Ivan sure were better than the ones he had with girls. Now that he thought about it, that explained a lot. He kind of wanted to smack himself in the forehead. A whole entire year of boring sex with girls and he _still_ couldn't figure out that guys were more of his thing. Al had to admit that sometimes he was really, really stupid.

Al stopped Ivan from leaving once more. "After some careful consideration. I think that my answer to the boyfriend thing is yes."

Ivan's eyes widened. "Really?"

Al nodded. "Yep."

Ivan kissed him one more time and then left with a goodbye after that. Al felt like he was in a little bit of a daze. He had just gotten a boyfriend. He couldn't help but let a small smile crawl onto his face as he browsed Netflix. He finally decided to get started on one of the anime that Kiku had recommended to him. About half way through Matt came through the front door. He came into the living room and Al just couldn't resist.

"Hey, guess who  _isn't_ rocking the single life anymore?" Al boasted with a smile. It dropped into a frown though when he saw Matt's face. His eyes were red and he was very clearly upset. He tried to smile for Al but it only twisted his face to make him look like he was in further pain.

"That's great Al," Matt said quietly. He went into his room and shut the door. What had happened?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew must make some decisions about what he wants to do with his and Carlos' relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case there is some confusion I would just like to clarify that all of this happens when Al is doing his thing with Ivan in the last chapter.

Matt had been boyfriends with Carlos for almost a year now. It had lasted a long time and honestly at the beginning of their relationship Matt had thought that they would be together for a very long time. When it started becoming serious he had thought that they might even get married. But that soon waned. He loved Carlos but he wasn't so sure if that was romantic anymore. Lately he had been feeling regret.

He wanted his best friend back. Lately all he and Carlos had been doing was having sex. They made out more than they spoke. It was weird that Matt now felt like his only friend was his own brother. 

It's not that what Carlos and he had wasn't special. Matt had shared many firsts with Carlos. His first date, kiss, boyfriend, first time having sex. At the time it had all been wonderful. Matt couldn't have been happier. But then they spent more and more time together as boyfriends. They fought more than they ever did when they were just friends and Matt began to miss his best friend. Friendships were important, Matt knew that better than anyone else because he had spent so much time alone and with barely anyone at all. Then he decided to ruin one of his only friendships, his strongest friendship. He hated himself for it sometimes.

He was so unhappy. He wanted to break it off but he knew if he did that, Carlos and he might never speak again. He spent many sleepless nights staring at his wall and cuddling Kumajiro. It helped when he buried his face in the bear's fur and remembered how happy he had been when he first got the bear. Francis had told him he could have any stuffed animal he wanted. It was after Matt had thrown a tantrum after his first day in kindergarten. He didn't quite remember why he had been upset. He assumed it was because he had been ignored.

Carlos didn't ignore him. He still didn't ignore him. In fact now he payed  _way_ too much attention to Matt. Matt hated that he was bugged by this. He knew he was being impossible and it was pissing him off.

After thinking it over for nearly a _month,_ he decided. He was going to break up with Carlos. Of course he would try and mend their friendship but if he was being honest with himself he didn't see their relationship surviving this. He steeled his nerves and called Carlos up after he had gotten home from the hospital.

He had set up a time that he and Carlos would meet. It was still nice out so Carlos had suggested going to the park. The same one where they had first confessed that they liked it each other. Matt tried to get them to meet up at a different spot but Carlos had insisted, saying that he wanted a picnic. Matt finally relented and it was confirmed that they were going to meet up at the park. Matt didn't go to sleep that night.

* * *

It was Saturday when Al had finally come home from the hospital. Matt had sarcastically commented how slim Al's right leg looked with the cast on. But his heart wasn't really into it. He assumed that it didn't show because Al had only made a face at him and plopped down onto the couch. He had looked tired and a little troubled so Matt didn't bother him too much. He went into his room and turned up the volume of his music so that it was blasting into his ears. He would be leaving in an hour and he was half tempted to just let it go and continue as he had been for the past month. But he knew that would be unfair to himself and to Carlos. How could he keep them both in a relationship that he didn't think would get any better?

So when it was time to leave Matt had made up his mind for sure. He was going to break up with Carlos. He had to ask Francis for a ride. Both he and Al had their drivers licenses but not their own cars and Francis had to run a few errands so he needed the car more than Matt did.

Francis dropped him off and Matt was hit with a strange sense of deja vu as he climbed out of the car and told his dad he would text him when he was ready to be picked up. He felt like it was the same as when he was first going to admit his feelings to Carlos. Now he was doing the same thing, under the same setting but this time it wouldn't have a happy ending.

Matt walked through the park and looked around. He was half tempted to just leave and call Carlos and tell him that he was sick and couldn't make it. But he didn't. He walked through the grass until he spotted Carlos and suppressed his desire to flee. He has been doing so all day so it comes easier to him than he thought. Carlos was sitting peacefully in the grass, head titled back and looking at the clouds. He was leaning on his hands and he looked so happy.  Thankfully he was sitting in a secluded area, under the shadow of the branches of the tree above him.

Matt walked slowly over. His eyes darted around the park like he was looking for someone who wasn't Carlos, but it was just nerves that made him do thay. Carlos lowered his head and smiled broadly when he realized that Matt had arrived.

"Hey," Carlos said, still smiling and he grabbed Matt's hand and dragged him down so that they were sitting closely together.

"We need to talk," Matt said.

Carlos' expression became confused. "What about?" When Matt didn't continue Carlos became worried. "Did something happen with your brother?"

"No, he's fine. He came home about an hour ago." Matt was able to say this easily. It was just a normal conversation with his boyfriend about his brother who had gone to the hospital because of a broken leg.

"Then what is it?" Carlos prodded. Matt remained silent but so did Carlos. He knew that he had to wait for Matt to become ready to speak.

"I'm breaking up with you," Matt said in a rush.

"What?" Carlos asked.

"I know you heard me," Matt said quietly and he stood up. Carlos grabbed his hand.

"Why are you saying this?" Carlos pleaded.

"I miss my friend," Matt said, his head turned so that he couldn't look at Carlos.

"I _am_  your friend," Carlos said.

"No, you're my boyfriend," Matt said. "My only friend at this point is Al."

"Why? Why do you think that?"

"Because I want someone I can talk to and lately we haven't been talking. Lately our relationship has only been physical and it makes me miss you when you're right there in front of me," Matt said, his voice quavering slightly.

Carlos stood up. "It sounds like you just want a friend, not a boyfriend." Matt looked away. "So that's the entire reason you're breaking up with me?"

"I rushed into things," Matt confessed in a whisper. "I've never had a boyfriend before. I've never grown close enough to someone to actually be able to date them or grow an interest in them. But then you came along, this brilliant person who showered me with attention. More than I had ever gotten from anyone that wasn't in my family. You were the first person I had grown so close to. You were my best friend and I  _ruined_ that."

Carlos looked broken. "So you think you ruined our relationship?"

"Carlos all I want is a friend. I realize now I don't want a boyfriend. At least... I don't want my boyfriend to be my old best friend. Or maybe I want our old relationship back, before we started dating. I don't know. All I know is that I don't want _this_ anymore."

Carlos let go of Matt's hand which he was still clutching to. "Alright then."

And that was it. Carlos walked away and Matt stood locked in the same place. His teeth clenched, his hands balled into fists. But the rest of him was limp. He felt his throat close up and that finally moved him. He didn't want to cry in public so he walked away. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. He searched his other pockets for his ear buds, hoping to drown out the world with music. He came up empty though. He had forgotten his headphones at home.

Matt felt like throwing something. So when he got to the shore of the lake he grabbed a good sized rock and threw it as hard as he could into the water. He heard the splash as the rock hit the water but he couldn't see it. For a moment he thought that he might have fallen into the lake because his vision was being blocked by something watery. He realized that he was crying though and it made him frustrated.

 _He_ was the one who broke up with  _him_. Why was he crying? Matt let out an angry growl and turned away, rubbing fiercely at his eyes. He circled the lake a few times, trying to calm himself down so he could call his parents and ask for them to pick him up. He tried so hard to stop crying long enough for his eyes to stop being red. But every few minutes he would relive what he had done. He had completely damaged a relationship that was so good. For what? Because he wanted  _friends?_

Matt prowled around the park his hands stuffed deep in his pockets, water streaming down his face at random intervals, making him rip one of his hands violently out of his pocket and scrub at his face. People saw how distressed he was and a couple of brave souls came over to ask him if he was alright. He would just nod curtly and continue walking.

When next Matt took out his phone it had been roughly an hour and a half since he had broken up with Carlos. It had felt like an eternity. He had probably walked through every square inch of the park and he finally realized how tired he was. He dragged himself over to the nearest bench and sat down. He rested his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. When he felt that all too familiar tingling in the back of his eyes he pressed the heel of his hand to them, willing his tears back.

He breathed in deeply and sat there for a while. When he was finally able to calm himself down he took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the time again. It was almost five o' clock. he scrolled through his contacts and was about to call Francis, whom he knew was home, but stopped. He was sure that he looked like a mess so he didn't want to call his parents up looking like this. If he did they would ask questions and he didn't want to talk at all.

Matt exited out of his contact list and searched for distraction. He opened up one of his games and began to play. It was Angry Birds. He had relented against playing it for a while, claiming that it he wasn't going to like it because it had become over hyped. Carlos had managed to get him to buy it and play it. He ended up really liking it. Matt exited out of that app at the thought. He wasn't able to knock over any of the damn pigs anyway. He sighed and rested some more, distracting himself by flicking through his phone.

He went to his camera roll and deleted every picture of him and Carlos kissing that he had. He almost deleted every picture that they ever took but he didn't. He wasn't ready to do that.

After a while Matt finally stood up again and began walking. He went out of the park this time instead of around the lake and headed home. He didn't want to call his parents still. He didn't trust himself to not break down in the car.

He wished he had his own car. Then he could have been home by now. He could have snuck into the house and slipped into his room before anyone even realized that he had returned. 

Matt sighed and continued walking. At one point he started crying again. He was alone in the street though and he let his body be racked with sobs and let the tears stream freely down his face. When a car would come around and pass him he would lower his head so they couldn't see his face. He didn't know how long he did this but when he got to the main street he managed to calm himself down enough so that only his breath was shaky and only a few tear drops escaped from his eyes when he blinked.

Matt walked all the way home this way. Switching from walking in absolute silence, to the point where he wondered whether or not he even  _thought_ during these times, and between sobbing into his hand, slightly hunched over. When he got to his house he saw that the lights in the living room and his parents' bedroom were on. He scrubbed at his face, making sure the remnants of his crying wasn't visible through any tears. He combed through his hair with his fingers and walked to his house.

When he got in he let the door slip shut behind him. He padded quietly into the living room after removing his shoes. Al was sitting on the couch with a blanket draped over his lap. He turned his head and grinned broadly.

"Guess who _isn't_ rocking the single life anymore," Al beamed. He looked so happy. Matt quickly figured out what his brother implied. A part of him laughed at the bitter irony of it. The night he had broken up with the person he was dating Al had begun dating someone.

Al's smile slipped off of his face and he looked concerned. Matt thought that he really must have looked horrible and he smiled for Al.

"That's great Al," Matt said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. He turned and walked into his bedroom. He was glad that his brother had found someone. Matt closed his bedroom door quietly when he entered his room. He collapsed into his bed and cuddled against Kumajiro. He breathed in deeply and when he breathed out it was shaky.

He stripped down until he was only in his underwear and wrapped himself in his blanket. He felt some more wetness on his cheeks but he ignored it and forced himself to go to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt has mostly gotten over his break up with Carlos but with the help of his family he begins to think that he can move on and meet new people.

Matt was lying in his bed, wrapped in a blanket. The sunlight streamed in through his window and fell across his closed eyelids, making it seem that he was looking at red. Matt groaned and rolled over. He was too tired to battle the sun today. There was a light knocking on his door.

"What?" he asked in his first-thing-in-the-morning voice.

Al came into the door. "Get up."

"No," Matt said, extending the 'o' with a wine. "I'm too comfy."

Al strode, or hobbled really, across the room and ripped the blankets off of Matt. "Get up."

"No," Matt said stubbornly and curled into a ball.

"I nearly fell because I was trying to get that damn blanket off," Al said, talking about his bad balance on his crutches.

"Well you didn't. Now would you go away and let me sleep?"

"No. You've been in here for way too long. We're going out."

"It's not like I have anywhere else to go," Matt said. There was no bitterness in his voice, he only sounded tired.

"Well now you do, dad and pop got us some of those card thingys for Dave and Busters."

Matt opened his eyes and peeped from the crook of his arm. "Really?"

"Really."

"When are we going?"

"In an hour. Dad and pop are coming too."

Matt thought about it for a moment before he crawled out of his bed. Al smiled triumphantly. Matt walked to the closet and changed. Al thought that was a great achievement. At least for the weekend. Matt had still gone to school. He still participated too, which was something Al hadn't expected. But lately Matt seemed even more invested into his studies than usual.

Matt put on a baggy sweater and some jeans and walked out of the room before Al, not about to wait so long for his brother to go down the hallway. He might have been injured but Matt wasn't going to let a little thing like that keep him from being annoyed with his brother's lack of speed. When Matt went out into the hallway he was greeted with the overpowering smell of bacon. If something else was being made he wouldn't have been able to detect it because of the pungent smell.

Matt went down into the kitchen. There he saw Francis in front of the stove making pancakes. Amazing. Francis looked up when he saw his sons hovering in the kitchen doorway.

"Breakfast will be ready in a minute," Francis said and returned to his cooking. "Would one of you wake up your father? He hasn't gotten up yet."

"Can do," Al said and with a salute he left to wake up his dad.

Matt walked into the kitchen and hopped up onto the counter. He liked doing that. There was just something extremely satisfying in sitting on top of a counter.

"Can I have the first pancake?" Matt asked. "With lots of syrup?"

Francis chuckled. "Of course."

Francis plated a couple of pancakes off of the pile and handed it to Matt. He didn't hand over the syrup so Matt had to slide off of the counter to get it himself. When he closed the cabinet and turned back around Francis was getting the bacon on a serving platter. He asked Matt to get plates and silverware for the rest of the family as he walked into the dining room. The plates were set out and Arthur and Al came into the dining room as well. Soon Matt was surrounded by his family and was happily chewing a mouthful of pancakes soggy with syrup. he didn't have bacon but that was mostly because Al had hoarded most of it for himself.

The breakfast talk was pleasantly domestic. It was broken sometimes by Matt and Al threatening to kick each other's asses in heroic, arcade game glory. When they were done with their meal there was a quick clean-up period before they started getting ready for their trip. Matt and Al were already dressed and ready and only had to wait for their parents. They waited in comfortable silence until Matt remembered something.

"You know you never told me who you started dating," Matt said.

Al looked sheepish. "Yeah, well after you broke up with Carlos I didn't really want to rub it in your face."

"It's fine, I don't mind at all. I'm really happy for you," Matt said. "But do our parents know?"

"Yeah I told them about them the day after you told us why you had come home so upset."

Matt nodded. So he told them three days after his break up with Carlos. 

"So who is it then?" Matt asked curiously.

"Um, we went to middle school with him," Al said.

"Him? I thought you were the super straight quarter back," Matt teased.

"Yeah well, he's sweet so-" Al said with a shrug.

"Now I'm really curious. Tell me," Matt prodded.

"It's Ivan from the eighth grade," Al said.

"Ivan  _Braginsky?"_ Matt asked in disbelief. "I thought you said this person was  _sweet_."

Al scratched at his cheek trying, and failing, to hide his blush. "He _is_ really sweet. Now anyways," Al mumbled.

Matt smiled. "Geez, if he can get you to blush like that I guess he isn't too bad anymore."

"I am  _not_ blushing," Al said and turned his head away from Matt.

"Whatever gets you to sleep at night," Matt said with a chuckle. "So how was your first date?"

"We haven't really had an official first date. The day that I told you I wasn't single was the last time I saw him, we've only called each other since then," Al said.

"That's lame," Matt states. "Go on a date with him you wuss. It's been two weeks."

Al nodded. "I know I was thinking about making it tomorrow. You know, before the weekend ends."

"Do it," Matt encouraged. Al smiled at the ground.

"Alright."

His parents came into the room then, ready to leave. Matt called driving there and he was handed the keys. He hopped into the driver's seat and backed them out of the driveway once everyone had gotten into the car.

"I would like it if you  _didn't_ kill us all," Al commented when Matt swerved a little recklessly during a turn.

"Yeah, I got it," Matt said. "That was a little hiccup. Besides I'm still a better driver than you." He pushed away the thought about why he hadn't gone driving in so long. He was going out to  _forget_ about the break-up not ponder it.

"Whatever," Al said. Matt continued on driving, rather smoothly in his opinion. When they got to a red light that seemed to be eternally stuck on that color Matt plugged in his phone to the car and picked some music. It played for a little while before Al sighed heavily.

"What is this?" Al asked. "Can we listen to hip-hop or something?"

"I don't have any of the crap that you listen to," Matt said.

"Fine. let me put my phone in so we can listen to it," Al said and reached into his pocket.

"What? No. No way. This is Franz Ferdinand. There is no way that I'm going to change it to Nicki Minaj or something," Matt said.

"I do  _not_ listen to Nicki Minaj. I listen to good stuff like Eminem. He is the god of rap," Al said.

"Franz Ferdinand is better," Matt said.

"What? You haven't even listened to any of Eminem's songs," Al retorted.

"It doesn't matter. Franz Ferdinand is still better," Matt countered. Al snorted.

"From what I'm listening to it doesn't sound like it."

"That's because you don't know good music if it slapped you in the face."

"I think you're talking about yourself here."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Driver picks the music, Alfred shuts his pie hole."

" _You_ shut your pie hole."

Francis sighed. "Boys please."

Francis looked towards Arthur, who was sitting in the front, for help so they could band together to stop the bickering boys. But Arthur looked at him from the rear view mirror and winked. He reached into his pocket and as inconspicuously as he could, slipped _his_ phone out. He quickly unplugged Matt's phone and plugged his own in. Of course Al and Matt noticed that the music had stopped and quieted their fighting. Arthur scrolled through his music list and picked out a song.

Nirvana blasted through the speakers of the car and Arthur turned down the music enough so that everyone could hear him.

"Dad over rides the driver's and Alfred's music suggestions," Arthur said with a smile and that was how they decided on the music they would listen to for the rest of the drive.

When they arrived in the parking lot Matt was able to pull them into a parking space, only scaring his parents once. They climbed out of the car and went straight to the arcade room. Matt and Al immediately went off by themselves and left Arthur and Francis to do their own thing. Matt went to the games where he could save the world from zombies. He also took part in saving the world from aliens.

His chest would twinge painfully whenever he remembered a date that he and Carlos had gone on that was similar to what he was doing now. He tried his hardest to ignore it but when it came to became too much and he felt like curling up into a ball again he fled to his parents and Al. He found Al first. They played some games together and Matt was grateful that he was able to forget about Carlos for a little longer.

Matt let himself be carried away by the sounds of guns firing and the sight of virtual guts splattering across screens. He lost himself in the company of his family and for once in these two weeks he forgot about Carlos completely. He forgot that he had ever broken up with him or that they ever had a troubled relationship. But sometimes that thought led him to think "Why didn't I invite Carlos, this is fun."

It was a habit to think about inviting Carlos out to do something enjoyable. Matt knew that it was something that he had to grow out of, and quickly. Whenever those thoughts plagued him he would go hide in a video game with one of his parents or Al by his side. It was a good day.

They eventually had to leave though. All the credits in their cards had run out. Al and Matt combined their tickets so they could get something. They thought that they had quite a few tickets but that theory was shot down when they saw how much everything cost.

"Geez," Al said. "We can't even afford to get a decent sized stuffed animal."

"What do you want a stuffed animal for?" Matt asked.

Al blushed. "Nothing really. I just decided that I wanted to go on a date with Ivan tomorrow and I thought it would be cute to get him something."

Matt smiled. "You can use my half. It's fine."

"Really?" Al asked.

"Yeah, go ahead," Matt says with a smile. Al thanked him profusely and went to go get something. After Al wandered around the store some more he finally chose a little stuffed bear. It was pretty small so it had left him with just enough to get a couple of candy bars. Once Al had gotten everything he tossed Matt a candy bar.

"My thanks for being cool for once," Al said. 

"Yeah, yeah," Matt said and opened his candy bar. He took a big bite out of it and savored the sweet taste it left in his mouth. He didn't even chew he just let the chocolate melt before he swallowed it down. Francis stole a piece of the candy when they got to the front doors.

Arthur was the one who drove them back. This time they didn't listen to any music. They just sat in companionable silence. Occasionally it was broken by Al. There was just something about Al that forced him to talk all the time. Matt didn't completely understand. Matt liked it when he didn't have to talk a lot. It was nice.

When they got home everyone lazed around the house for the rest of the day. Now that their fun was over they didn't feel like doing much. Matt was always by someone's side, distracting himself from Carlos with whatever he could. He didn't spend too much time in his room. He had spent too much time wallowing in there. It made him feel good to be out of there after so long. He liked that he was spending so much time with his family and that he was steadily getting over Carlos. Over course there were still many reminders for Matt that made his chest hurt and his eyes water but for the first time he felt like he could get through this alright.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First date? First date!

Al sat on his bed, wanting to pace the room. But due to his broken leg he couldn't, so he settled for fidgeting on the bed. He had just gotten back from the trip to Dave and Busters and there he had made up his mind to ask Ivan out on a date. Now he was in his room and he was nervous. He tossed his phone in the air and caught it again. He did this a few times before he finally stopped and opened his phone. His thumb hovered over Ivan's number. He wanted to call him and ask him. But did he have to call him? In this day and age it was perfectly fine just to text him about it. Al decided on that. It was certainly less nerve-wracking.

**To The Bae: r u doin anything tomorrow??**

**From The Bae: nope**

Al typed in a response and then deleted it. He then retyped the response and deleted it again. Asking someone out over text sounded really lame. So Al worked up some courage and called Ivan.

Ivan picked up on the second ring. "Hello."

"Hey," Al said. "Um there was something that I wanted to ask you."

"Yeah, there was something I wanted to ask you too," Ivan said.

"Uh- you go first then," Al said, trying to buy himself some time to get his thoughts in order.

"Do you want to go on a date tomorrow?" Ivan asked.

"Y-yeah. That sounds good," Al said with a growing smile. Then he paused. "Wait, dammit _I_ was supposed to ask you out." 

Ivan laughed. "It looks like I beat you to it."

Al smiled again. "I guess so."

"Well," Ivan said a little awkwardly. "I'll pick you up tomorrow night then? At five maybe?"

"That sounds good," Al said.

"So," Ivan said, "What have you been doing all day?"

"We went to Dave and Busters today. It was so much fun. Matt kind of kicked my ass when we played video games though," Al said with a chuckle.

Ivan laughed. "You tell me that you lose at video games a lot, are you sure that you're actually any good at them?"

"Excuse me, of course I'm good at video games, it just seems that everyone around me is a little better."

Ivan laughed and their conversation continued. They talked about nothing and everything. Trivialities that the person who was speaking didn't think were all that important but the other person on the end of the line thought were amazing in every way just because it was something about their boyfriend. Just because they could feel themselves becoming a little closer. When they finally hung up Al realized that they had been on the phone for nearly two hours. He felt that the room was too silent without Ivan's voice in one of his ears.

He grabbed his crutches and stood. He went into the living room and found his family gathered there. Matt's feet were tucked up underneath him and his head was resting on Francis' shoulder. Arthur was squished against them as well, making it so Francis and Arthur were surrounding Matt. Al studied his brother when he went to sit in an armchair. He worried about him sometimes. Even though he had been the one to break it off, this break up wasn't easy on him.

Al wondered what it would be like if he and Ivan broke up but he cast that thought aside. He didn't want to worry himself with thoughts like that. He was going on a date with him tomorrow, there was no reason to worry. Al curled his lips into a smile. He was going on a date tomorrow. Arthur flicked his eyes toward Al and noticed his smile.

"Did something good happen?" Arthur asked.

Al looked up, still smiling. "Yeah."

"Did you finally grow some balls and ask Ivan out?" Matt piped up.

"Yeah," Al said, not bothering to mention that Ivan was the one who had gotten up the courage to ask first. He would just keep that little detail to himself. 

"That's great," Francis and Arthur said together. They didn't sound all too happy but Al was glad that they were trying to be okay with it. He understood why they were so hesitant to accept their relationship, especially after what he had told them about middle school and all. But things had changed and they didn't need to protect him from Ivan anymore. Al was good now. He was happy.

* * *

Al changed his hoodie for the hundredth time. Everything didn't seem good enough. They were just going on a casual date but Al felt like he should wear something better. He shrugged off his jacket and changed his shirt this time. He put on a red shirt with blue sleeves and looked at himself in the mirror. He frowned and was about to take that one off too when the doorbell rang. He looked towards his closet and contemplated whether or not he had time to find a better shirt. Apparently he didn't because Arthur was calling him to the door. Al sighed and readjusted his crutches so he could walk on them.

He went out into the living room and Francis and Arthur were just introducing themselves to Ivan. Hero was sniffing and circling Ivan's legs. He kind of looked uncomfortable so Al swooped in to save him.

"Hey," Al said. He kind of wanted to peck Ivan on the lips but there was no way he would do that if his parents were right there.

"Hi," Ivan said. "Uh, you ready to go?" Al smiled and nodded. Ivan turned towards his parents again. "It was nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Ivan," Arthur said. Al sensed his protectiveness kicking in so he was pushing Ivan out the door.

"Bye papa, bye dad, tell Matt I said goodbye too," Al said and ushered Ivan out the door.

Ivan waved to them one more time before turning around. When Al stepped out the door with Ivan and shut the door behind him he let out the breath he didn't realize that he was holding.

"I'm sorry," Al said. "I had a feeling that my parents were about to jump into protective mode."

Ivan looked down. "I don't blame them."

Al grabbed his hand and pressed his lips against Ivan's. "Don't start with that again. I already said that everything is good now right?"

Ivan nodded. Al pulled his hand away from Ivan's so that they could go to Ivan's car which was waiting down near the driveway. Ivan pulled the door open for him and took his crutches. He put them in the back as Al clumsily clambered into the passenger side. Ivan hopped in and started the car. He smiled at Al.

"Ready?" he asked.

Al smiled. "Yeah."

* * *

Francis wrapped his arm around Arthur's waist.

"What do you think of Ivan?" Francis asked.

"He's a bit scary to be honest," Arthur said.

Francis nodded and rested his head on Arthur's. "Do you think they'll be alright?"

"I don't know. Their history is sketchy. I don't think I trust Ivan yet but Al seems to. Did you see how happy he looked when he saw Ivan?"

"Oui, I saw. He never looked like that when he came home with his girlfriends."

Arthur sighed and was silent a moment. "Do you think we should follow them?"

"I really hope you're joking."

"I'm just worried is all," Arthur mumbled.

"He'll be fine," Francis reassured. "Let's check on Matt. Al going out on a date might be making him feel a little bad."

Francis went into Matt's bedroom and found him lying in bed with both of his ear buds in, working on his homework. Arthur was standing behind him. Francis knocked on the door frame and Matt took his ear bud out when he realized his parents were there. 

"Ivan just came to pick up Al," Francis said and sat on the mattress, next to Matt.

"Oh cool," Matt said with a look that questioned why he was being told this.

"Are you feeling alright?" Arthur asked.

Understanding dawned on his face. "I'm fine guys. Really."

"You know you can talk to us whenever you need to right?" Francis said gently.

"I'm really fine. I'm happy for Al in fact. Yeah I was a little bitter about it at first but not anymore. I'm good. Everything's good."

Francis smiled. "Alright." Before he left he pressed a kiss to Matt's forehead and left the room. He was glad that Matt was feeling better.

* * *

Al was led into Ivan's dining room. Ivan sat him down in one of the chairs and disappeared into the kitchen for a little while. Al looked curiously around the room, searching for a little more about his boyfriend's life.  _His boyfriend._ He really liked that he could call Ivan that.

In the corner of the room there was some antique plates in a little cabinet. There were also some pictures of Ivan and a couple of girls. Ivan's face was mostly being hid by the scarf in all of the pictures. The girls were clinging to him with big smiles. He assumed that they were Ivan's sisters. Ivan had told him about them a few times.

Al's observations were interrupted by Ivan coming back into the room with steaming plates. He set one in front of Al and set the other plate in the seat in front of Al. He sat down in the seat across from Al and smiled. The smell of the food hit Al at once. It smelled really good.

He looked down at his plate. "Did you make this?"

Ivan nodded. "I did but admittedly my sister made desert."

Feeling bold Al said. "Oh. But wouldn't that make your sister your mother? Since she made my desert and all."

Ivan buried his face into his scarf and flicked his eyes around the room. He was being shy? Al smiled at that. He thought that Ivan looked really cute.

"Uh, tell me how you like your food. It's beef stroganov," Ivan said. Al obediently stabbed a piece of meat with his fork and brought it to his mouth. He groaned his approval.

"This is really good," Al said and took another bite of the food. Ivan pulled his scarf down and revealed a smiled.

"That's good. I'm glad that you like it," Ivan said and took a bite himself. He watched Al eat, never really taking his eyes off of him. Al did the same but occasionally he would blush and look away only to have his eyes dragged back to those purple eyes. There was something slightly intimidating about looking into Ivan's eyes for too long so as much as Al tried to seem confident he would look away eventually, feeling like he was being stripped down by Ivan's gaze. They spoke a little bit about their families and that reminded Al of something.

"Is it really okay to be keeping the house to ourselves? Where are your sisters at?" Al asked.

"My older sister is working. We're not the wealthiest so she does that a lot. I don't know where my little sister is though. She's not in the house I know that for sure. She would be watching us if that was the case."

"Tell me some more about your sisters," Al said. So Ivan did. He told him about the time where his big sister wrapped the scarf he was wearing around his neck for the first time and how he hadn't taken it off since then. He told him about how clingy and downright frightening his little sister could be. In turn he asked Al about his family. So Al told him about all the good times. Like when he had been a child and spent a month sleeping in his parent's room each year because Halloween was a scary time for him. He told Ivan of the time that he had found Hero after walking home from Little League practice and how happy he had been when Francis and Arthur had allowed Hero to become a part of their family. He told him about how he would purposely make Matt mad so that he would stutter and trip over his words, giving Al some more fuel to make fun of him with.

Their food ran out quickly and then Ivan was going back into the kitchen and taking out their desert. He handed a a little plate of the stuff to Al.

"It's lymonnyk, which is a lemon pie. My sister makes these well I think you'll like them," Ivan said.

Al took a bite and he was closing his eyes again. "I think I know now that your cooking skills are hereditary. This is really good."

"Good!" Ivan said and snagged a square of the pie off of the small plate. They ate in a happy silence before the plate was empty of all but crumbs. Then Ivan was pulling Al to his feet. He put Al's crutches into Al's arms and waited for him to be ready to walk again. They went to the living room and Ivan dragged Al onto the couch. He made Al sit so close to him that Al would only have to shift a little bit and end up in Ivan's lap.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" Ivan asked.

"Hmmm, if we watch a movie though I would just end up getting into it and not kiss you. The problem with that is that I really want to kiss you so I think we should just skip the movie," Al said.

"So you want to make out?" Ivan asked.

Al smiled. "Bingo." 

So they kissed for a while. They ended up turning the TV on but they really didn't pay attention to it. Really it was only being used as a background noise. Al found that Ivan was actually pretty rough. He tugged at Al's hair and squished them together. He really liked biting too.

They ended up having a really good date, chalk-full of make out sessions and crappy TV. They also had a couple more pieces of the lemon pie. When Al finally had to leave he was even more disappointed about it then the first time that they had to part.

Ivan drove him back home and when they got in front of Al's house they spent a few more minutes kissing before Al finally forced himself to leave. They parted and Al floated into his house. It had been a really good day. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt goes through a little transformation and makes some new friends!

Matthew's transformation began shortly after he broke up with Carlos. Even though he had been the one to break it off he still missed him. But he was getting better, slowly but surely. He shut himself away in his room for two weeks before Al and his family dragged him out. From there things began to look up. However a few things changed with Matt as he was recovering. They were small things, specifically the way he dressed.

When he had locked himself in his room he mostly only wore clothing that he only wore around the house. For two weeks his wardrobe consisted of pajamas. When his parents forced him to wear some actual clothes he would throw on a pair of jeans and a giant sweater. He knew he wasn't going to go out other than to go to school so he didn't really dress like he cared.

When the new year started and Matt started to feel well again he began to wear the clothes that he would have normally. But he found that without the baggy sweaters he felt kind of naked. So that was what he wore. He didn't particularly care that he looked small in them, that he  _felt_ small in them. It was actually quite cozy. With the sleeves that went past his hands his fingers never got cold. Not to mention the front pocket was large enough to hide Hero in, and he had become a big dog over the years.

So that became all that Matt wore. He liked that he was perpetually in a cloud of cotton-y comfort. From there he had begun to wear flannel. It was a step up from the big sweaters at wearing clothes that actually fit him, although he still preferred to get them in sizes that were a little bigger than what he needed.

Al made fun of him for it and said that he looked like a girl who was always wearing her boyfriend's sweaters. Of course Matt really didn't give a shit  _what_ Al thought. He wore what he wanted to. If he stopped doing  _half_ of what Al made fun of him for he would never get anywhere. _  
_

That wasn't the only change that Matt noticed though. When he went out into public he sometimes caught people staring at him. He knew that the bigger sweaters weren't exactly the fashion statement of the century but he didn't think that he looked all that grungy because of them. But still, people were giving him weird looks.

Soon after that Matt noticed that more and more people started to hit on him. It was typically older guys and Matt had no idea why. It really became a nuisance to him to tell people that he wasn't interested. He even went to Al to ask for help on this but Al only laughed and shook his head.

Matt went even so far as to ask Tony and Kiku what he should do. Tony told him that he should stop wearing the big sweaters and the baggy clothes. When Matt asked why he was met with a simple answer.

"Because you look adorable in them," Tony had stated. Matt laughed at that. He had never once in his life thought that he looked _adorable._ Even if he did he was kind of disappointed that it had hit him so late in his life. What was adorableness going to do for him now? He was almost a grown man dammit. He wanted to be sexy not  _adorable_. But Matt still didn't want to give up comfort just because he had to deal with people every once in a while so the clothes stayed.

After that he slowly morphed into a kind of hipster. He became even more pretentious about his indie music than he was before. He refused to change his glasses to the thick lens though, that was just going too far. Only after that did Matt really start to become experimental.

It was towards the end of the school where only a few months remained before Al and Matt graduated from their eleventh year. Matt was walking to the front doors of his school after he and Al had been dropped off by their parents. Of course neither of them had a car so they depended on their fathers for transportation on the days that both of their parents had work. After Francis had drove off Al and Matt went up the walkway to the front. Al no longer had his cast on so he was actually _walking_.

There on a big rock sat the school's stoners. They puffed away at their joints and Al went inside. They didn't walk together in the mornings so Matt wasn't all that bothered. It gave him a chance to stop in front of the small group and study them.

"Whatya looking at?" one of them asked although it wasn't in a hostile tone, it was more of a curious one. 

"Nothing," Matt replied and was about to take a step forward before he stopped himself. He wondered what it would feel like to be high. He looked back towards the group and hesitated a little longer.

"Do you want a hit?" another one of the people asked and offered his joint to Matt. He thought about it. He didn't have a class during first hour. He mostly used that time to do homework that he had been too lazy to do the day before.

"Yeah, okay," Matt said and moved closer to the group. He was met with a few "yeah's" as he took the joint. He stared at it for a moment. The stuff smelled gross but he didn't stop. He brought to his lips and tried copying the way that the other people had been puffing away at it before. He inhaled but he wasn't able to take all that long of a puff. He coughed and brought the thing away from his mouth. It tasted weird. He handed it over to the guy who had given it to him.

"You stickin' around?" the guy asked.

Matt nodded. He was already starting to feel a slight light-headedness. It wasn't all that unpleasant.

By the end of the period he was constantly giggling and munching on a packet of Goldfish that was being passed around. He felt really light, a little bit like he was floating. He wondered if he had been weighed down by problems that he never even knew he had. Sure he had broken up with Carlos but that had felt like ages ago. He wasn't troubled by it except for some lonely nights where he missed talking to someone outside of his family. Or maybe he was troubled by it? This light feeling could only mean that he was letting go of his problems or emotions that were dragging him down.

"Do you think we're constantly being weighed down by our pasts?" Matt asked suddenly.

"That's deep bro," someone said, "I'm surprised I can still see you."

"Something bothering you man?" another person asked.

Matt shrugged. "I broke up with my boyfriend. But that was a while ago so I don't see how it's still bugging me. But he was also my only friend and I really, _really_ miss him sometimes."

Matt was surprised when he felt like crying. No, no he was back tracking. It was all fine remember?

Someone slung their arm around his shoulders. "No sweat. We'll be your friends."

Right. It was all fine.

"Yeah dude, we got a thing tonight. You down?" someone asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, alright," Matt said.

There was a quick exchange of numbers and the blunt was thrown away. They knew that they had to come down from their high before school started. Matt was glad that they thought ahead and that he wouldn't be high enough to laugh at something stupid in class.

When the bell rang he stood. It felt weird and he allowed himself to giggle a little bit at the sensation. He told his new friends goodbye and went off to class. He worried for a moment that the smell of the pot was all over him and probably really potent as well. He was still being affected by the drug a little bit so he didn't worry on it too much.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. When he saw the people that he had hung out with that morning he was greeted with dopey smiles and "heeeey"s. It was a new thing for Matt to speak with people like this. Actually, it was a new thing for Matt to speak with people at all. But these people were so carefree that they enticed him. It was a new type of carefree too. Different from Al's carefree or anyone else he had seen like that. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but he felt like these were really good people that he could get along with.

* * *

When the end of school came around Matt was given a call. It was Feliks, the boy who had passed him his first blunt. He answered the phone.

"Hello?" Matt said.

"Hey, Matthew," Feliks said. "Meet us by the back doors. The ones that lead to the student parking lot, we're going to go to my house."

"Alright I'll be right there," Matt said and hung up. Al looked at him questioningly.

"Who was that?" Al asked.

"Just some friends," Matt said with a shrug. "We're going to go do some stuff after school."

"You don't have any friends,"Al teased. "Is it a boyfriend? I bet it's a boyfriend."

"It's not a boyfriend," Matt said. "I'm leaving now. Just tell papa that I was going out with some friends."

"See ya," Al said as his brother walked away.

Matt went around to the back of the school as he was instructed and saw the same group of people waiting in the back. Matt waved at them and joined them. They waited a little longer for a couple more people and then they were off. They took separate cars on account of the size of their group. One person was kicked out of Feliks' car because there was still someone who needed to be picked up. That person was at their house, waiting because he was lucky enough to go to a school that let him out earlier than Matt's school did. Lucky bastard.

Matt was brought into a neighborhood that he had never been to before in order to pick up this mystery friend. They stopped in front of the house and Feliks pressed the horn down for a good few seconds. They waited a little longer and he was about to blow the horn again when someone stepped out of the house. They locked the door behind them and hurried down to the car. He was made to sit in the back due to the passenger side already being taken. Matt scooted over so that he was sitting in the middle. The person had nearly white hair and red irises.

"Oh?" the newcomer said when he laid his eyes on Matt. "Who's this cutie?"

"I'm Matt," Matt introduced himself, ignoring the "cutie" comment.

"I'm Gilbert," the other boy said and climbed into the car. It was a tight squeeze with three teenage boys sardined into the back of the small car. But none of them complained. Soon they were at their destination and they all piled out.

Matt walked into the house and was slightly surprised to find that in the living room three decent sized bongs were already set out on the coffee table. Someone went straight to them and set them up immediately. Matt sat a little awkwardly on the sofa after setting his backpack down. It was always a little weird going to someone's house for the first time, regardless of the setting or the easy atmosphere.

Gilbert sat next to him and slung his arm across the back of the sofa. "So how long have you known these guys?" Gilbert asked.

"Oh. I-uh- I only met them this morning," Matt answered. Gilbert nodded his head. Matt thought that he saw him shift a little closer but he was sure that he was just imagining things.

"So have you ever had pot before?" Gilbert asked.

"No, I mean other than this morning, no," Matt said.

"That's cool. I've only done it a few times before myself," Gilbert pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "This asshole finally got me to break and try it this year."

Feliks answered. "Yeah, you should be thanking me, you love this."

"You've turned me into a stoner, you ass," Gilbert said, but he was smiling and it was apparent that he really didn't care.

Feliks rolled his eyes. When the bongs were all set up they were handed out evenly. Gilbert got one and was left to instruct Matthew on how to use it. He scooted closer and their knees bumped together. Matt got a hang of it and soon they were passing the bong around and talking to each other. Matt wasn't completely sure what they talked about. He couldn't even remember conversations he had with people when he was _sober_ , there was no way he would remember if he was high. The time passed quickly and they were all snacking on a bag of chips. Someone had gone out and they were waiting, rather impatiently, for their cheeseburgers to arrive.

Matt was suddenly aware of how close Gilbert had gotten over time. His arm now was on his shoulders instead of the couch and their thighs were pressed together. Matt scooted away a little bit but Gilbert moved so that he was as close as he had been before. Matt couldn't scoot over anymore without getting into Felicks' space as well. He stood up.

"I'm going to look for some more chips," Matt said. He went into the kitchen and sifted through the cabinets. He was actually getting hungry, that chip excuse wasn't just to get away from Gilbert for a little while.

"I'm pretty sure the chips are over here," someone said behind Matt. Matt turned his head and went flat on his feet from where he had been getting extra height with his toes. The person who had spoken was Gilbert.

The other boy was in the cabinets that were the opposite of where Matt had been checking, which were deeper into the kitchen. Gilbert triumphantly held a family sized bag of Lays in his hand a moment later. He tossed it to Matt, who clumsily caught it. Gilbert leaned against the counter and looked at the ground.

"So what was that in there?" Gilbert asked.

"What was what?" Matt said, busying himself with opening the bag of chips. It wasn't opening. It was starting to look like this bag was one of those bags that needed to be hacked at by scissors in order to open.

Gilbert strode across the kitchen and took the bag out of Matt's hands. Their fingers brushed for a brief moment. "In the living room. You didn't seem to like being close to me."

"Well I haven't exactly known you for all that long. It's a little uncomfortable being so close to someone you've just met," Matt said. Gilbert opened the bag when he was done talking. How did he do that so quickly? He didn't even look like he tried.

"Well you seem really buddy, buddy with Feliks already and you haven't known him for long either," Gilbert countered. 

Matt shrugged and grabbed a chip from the bag. "He talked to me the most when I first joined them this morning."

"But I've been talking to you a lot too," Gilbert said.

"Yeah, but do you have to be so close all the time?" Matt asked lightly and grabbed a handful of the salty snack in front if him.

"Well it's what I do when I think someone's attractive," Gilbert said and looked away with a red face. Why was he blushing? In Matt's experience guys were usually embarrassingly bold about cheesy statements like that. But Gilbert was kind of the opposite. He seemed brave at first and then shy later. Matt tried to hide his giggle through a mouthful of potato chips.

Matt turned serious a moment later though when Gilbert's eyes kept flicking his way. He looked like he was waiting for an answer. Shit.

"I- uh- I'm not really that attractive," Matt said awkwardly. He wanted to wince at his words. Now it seemed like he was looking for Gilbert to compliment his looks again.

"Well _I_ think so," Gilbert said. He mumbled his words and his voice was so quiet that Matt barely heard him. Matt sighed.

"L-look that's nice and all but- but I'm not really looking for anyone to date or hook up with or whatever it is you want," Matt said. Gilbert looked a little sad but then smiled.

"It's cool. Just friends then?" he said cheerfully.

Matt smiled. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Matt walked back into the living room with Gilbert. He munched on the chips that were cupped in his hand and sat back down in his original place on the sofa. Gilbert sat next to him but at an acceptable distance. Matt was glad that he was so understanding. He was sure that they would get along great. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Francis find some of Matt's weed. But Alfred takes the fall because he's awesome.

The boys twelfth grade year had come rolling around the corner and Al and Matt were getting excited about their imminent freedom from high school. But it was only winter. Al's football season was coming to a close. He was getting scouted and things were looking good. Things were also looking well for Matt in the sports world. His next game would have scouts looking for good player. He was excited. He really did love hockey. Even though he wasn't sure that was the career he wanted to pursue, it was comforting to know that there were options for him.  

He and Alfred were currently walking home from a particularly long day of school. They were gossiping as they turned into their driveway. It was typical high school drama, like someone had a crush on someone else but the crush was currently dating a _different_ someone else. Of course it was all about one of the popular kids at school, one of Al's teammates. Al took out his key and unlocked the door as he was finishing up his little piece of gossip.

"We're home!" Al called into the living room. They both stepped inside and something seemed... off. Matt wasn't sure how to describe it but the atmosphere in the house wasn't what he was used to. Al seemed to sense it too.

They both stepped into the living room cautiously. There they found their parents sitting down on the couch. They were both quiet and the look on their faces was very troubling to the boys. They both knew that they had done something wrong. They were in big trouble, they just didn't know what they were in trouble for yet. Arthur looked up at them and the disappointment in his eyes was very obvious. He pointed at the coffee table and the boys followed his finger with their eyes.

Shit. Resting on the little table was a bag of Matt's weed. Matt tried to hide his surprise and utter panic behind a stoic mask.

"Whose is this?" Arthur asked. Francis and Arthur both watched them carefully. Matt felt like he was being torn apart piece by piece from their piercing gaze. There was no way that he was going to hold out. He was definitely going to cave and tell them. That seemed like the only option right now. Matt debated with himself in his head for a little while. Seriously thinking about the pros and cons of telling his parents about this. It was no good. The cons were outweighing the pros by a long shot and he was stuck between holding onto the piece of information that was currently keeping him alive and the surgery that was being performed on his soul by his parents eyes. He felt a very strong sense of impending doom and Matt was sure that this is what experiencing the end of the world must be like.

"It's mine."

Matt whipped his head to the side to look at his brother who had just spoken. What? Al was taking the blame? Matt was almost sure that his parents had already killed him and that he was in some weird type of after life.

Francis sighed. "Matthew go to your room we need to speak to your brother."

"Wait, but-" Matt said in confusion.

Al cut him off. "It's cool go on."

His brother made a shooing motion with his hand and Matt slowly backed out of the room. He turned around when he got to the hallway that led to his room. He wasn't exactly sure what had just happened. Should he go back and tell the truth? Matt lingered in front of the door of his bedroom. He could hear his parents low voices drifting down the hallway. Matt really didn't want to be the one who was receiving that lecture. Matt opened his bedroom door and went inside.

* * *

After a time Matt got out of bed and pulled his ear buds out. As far as he could hear there were no more voices coming from the living room. Matt crept across his bedroom and slowly opened the door. It squeaked on its hinges and Matt winced at the noise. It was always when he was trying to be quiet when things started making noises. It was silent in the living room. He still heard his parents talking but it was coming from their room.

Matt tip-toed across the hallway and over to his brother's room. He let himself in and shut the door as quietly as he could behind him. Al looked up from his phone and smiled at Matt. What the heck. Why was he _smiling?_  

"Okay so... what was that?" Matt asked and plopped himself down in Al's desk chair.

Al shrugged and crossed his legs. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Matt said. "But you just- you just took the blame for something that _I_ did."

"Well aren't there scouts in the next game that you have?" Al asked. "I'm pretty sure dad and pop would make you miss the game because of this."

"I mean y-yeah but I don't think that they would go to such extremes right? I mean- I think they know how much I love hockey.

"Better safe than sorry?" Al offered. "I'm in trouble all the time anyways."

"I'm pretty sure that you haven't been in trouble over something like this," Matt said.

"I think just barely keeping my head out of the water when it comes to grades is a problem. Also I think they're still mad at me for having sex with Ivan on the couch."

"What the hell? Why would you have sex in such an open area when you live with three other people you idiot."

"Well you were out with friends and dad and pop said they were going to the store. How was I supposed to know that they would forget something? I thought it was safe."

"Oh my god. Is that why we got a new couch at the beginning of the school year?"

Al smirked. "Maybe." 

Matt dragged a hand down his face. "Okay, pieces of your life I didn't need to know about aside, what happened?"

"Hero must have sniffed it out and he came out into the living room with it dangling out of his mouth, the dumb dog," Al said with a chuckle. Matt tugged on the sleeve of his sweater. Damn, he knew he should have given it to Gilbert or Felicks. If only he hadn't been s greedy and trusted that they wouldn't have smoked it.

"What happened with you then?" Matt said.

"Oh I just got a lecture about how disappointed they were with me, like I didn't already know that. But other than that I'm going to get my phone taken away from me for like, three months and I'm also under house arrest for two. I can only go out for school."

"What about football?" Matt asked. Al's face fell for a moment but he dragged a smile back onto his face.

"Ah, they said that I'm grounded from that for a while too."

"And you  _still_ took the blame? Are you sure you're feeling alright Al?" Matt said in disbelief.

"I'm totally fine. I know how important the next game is for you, so I thought why not?"

"Al, hockey isn't the only thing that I want to do. Unlike you. Football is your life, how come your giving it up for me. For my hockey playing, which is certainly less important to me than football is to you."

"Maybe I'm having some doubts," Al said casually. "Anyway don't worry about it. And leave while you're at it, before I change my mind. I've gotta call everyone and tell them the news."

"Al you really don't have to do this," Matt said.

"How many times do I have to tell you that it's fine? I don't care. Dad and pop are already disappointed beyond belief with me and if they found out their little angel was smoking weed they would flip."

Matt still wasn't sure about it but he stood up anyways and walked out of the room. Of course what Al had said was true. His next hockey game was going to be super good for him, there was no way that he could miss it. But if he was to go to his game without fessing up, Al's football career would be non-existent. But Al's next game didn't happen until after Matt's. Maybe he could just keep quiet about it until his game was over and then tell the truth. That way no one would get hurt by this. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan. It was only a week anyways. 

* * *

It was the night before Matt's big game and guilt was gnawing away at him. He had thought that being quiet for a week would be a breeze, but no such luck. Of course now Matt was pacing his room on the verge of tears because of how bad he felt. He didn't think that he would be able to go to his game in this condition. Even if he did no one would scout him because of how horribly he was sure he was going to play.

This guilt had slowly made itself more and more present after each passing day. It hit him hard the first time that Al had missed practice. He found Al browsing Facebook with his limited computer time and responding to all of his questioning teammates. He had told them that he was grounded but Matt guessed they never anticipated that the star of the football team would actually be grounded from football as well. 

That was last night and now Matt couldn't stop thinking about it. He felt so bad. Whenever he thought about his brother's future being totally different because he decided to become a little bitch he felt so bad.  He really didn't think this through when he let Al take the blame in the first place.

Matt let out a frustrated huff and threw himself onto his bed. He could smell dinner being cooked even through his closed door. He knew that Francis was in there cooking. All it would take was to go into the kitchen and say "the weed was mine not Al's."

 Of course he didn't do anything. Even though he was feeling guilt like he never had before he was still not ready to go out there and confront his parents. He was nervous as hell and that warred inside of him with his guilt.

He rolled over so that he was on his side. Then he rolled over again so that he was on his other side. Then deciding that he liked neither position he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

"Dinner's ready!" Francis yelled into the house. Matt heard Al's door open a moment later and his footsteps went down the hall. They went past his door without pause. Of course Matt began to worry that Al was mad at him after all. Although he knew he shouldn't have been thinking on that. Al knew very well that Matt had heard their father and that he didn't need to retrieve Matt but he still worried. Maybe it was really time to confess.

Matt straightened and strode out of his room. He made his way to the dining room where he found the table had already been set. He sat in the seat opposite of Al and served himself after Al put down the serving utensils.

Matt began to eat slowly, not really paying attention to his parents' conversation. His head was still filled with worry and, guess what, guilt.

"Alfred," Arthur said. "Do you have any homework that needs to be done on the computer?"

"Nope," Al said. "And you don't have to tell me that I can't get on tonight because I already know."

"Alfred watch your tone," Francis said. Matt couldn't help but notice how his parents only said  _Alfred._ They only ever used his full first name when they were disappointed or angry. Oh there it was again. That recurring emotion that gripped at his chest. Matt set his silver ware down and called attention to himself by clearing his throat.

"There's something that I've been hiding from you guys," Matt said. Francis and Arthur exchanged a questioning look with each other before returning their attention to their son.

Al caught on quickly. "I don't think you do."

"Would you stop being so nice for a moment Al? It's really unsettling," Matt said and laughed nervously. Al was silent. Matt took a deep breath. "It was mine. That pot that you guys found was mine not Al's."

There was a moment of stunned silence that stretched on forever.

"So you let your brother take the blame for nearly a week?" Arthur asked. Another exchange of looks passed between Matt's parents. "I have to say that we're really disappointed in you, Matthew. For taking drugs  _and_  for hiding the truth for so long."

Matt gripped the edge of his chair. His eyes tingled and his throat constricted. "I know."

"Alfred you can go to your room. You're no longer grounded. Your phone is on the top shelf of our closet," Francis said. Al hesitated a moment before scooting his chair back, the sound sharp in the tense environment, and leaving the dining room. Once Al's padding footsteps were gone an unsettling silence descended on the remaining occupants of the dinner table.

"I assume you already know the punishments that were placed on Alfred when we thought it was him right?" Arthur said.

"Yeah," Matt said.

"They're yours now," Francis said. "No more hockey, no more phone, no more computer unless you need it for homework."

Matt nodded. There was silence for a few more years before it was broken by his dad.  

"What exactly possessed you to start smoking Matthew?" Arthur asked. "Was it peer pressure?"

Matt shook his head. His knuckles were white from how much he was squeezing his chair. "No I just saw some kids smoking it and I thought, well, why not try it? I guess I was feeling a little lonely or something."

Francis sighed. "Have you taken anymore pot since we've found your other bag of it?"

"No. Well I mean I tried to take a little more but it was only one hit. It didn't feel right to smoke it after Al had taken the blame for me though."

"That's another thing. Why did you let Al take the blame?" Arthur questioned.

"I thought that I would get grounded from hockey. Scouts will be there tomorrow and I didn't want to miss it."

"Is hockey the only thing you want to do with your life?" Francis asked gently.

"No," Matt said without hesitation. "I mean, I love it but I don't think that I want to make it my career."

Arthur and Francis looked at each other again. Francis spoke up. "Alright. Hand over your phone and go to your room."

Matt stood up and tugged his phone out of his pocket. He set it on the table and fled the dining room. He went into his room as he was instructed. He laid down on his bed expecting to feel exhausted but instead he felt... light. He could feel it now that lightness now that he wasn't being reprimanded by his parents. It was like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders and it felt  _good._ At a time like this he was pretty sure he was supposed to be upset but he felt the opposite. That guilt that had been ripping him apart since Al had stepped up was gone now. 

Matt was pretty sure that he could live without a phone and going out for two months if it felt this great. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al lets his anxieties about his future and how well he's doing in school send him to his friends and possibly to alcohol as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so sorry about how late this is. I was just dealing with stuff and this ended up getting pushed back. Again, I'm really sorry!

Things had been going well for Alfred after Matt had told his parents who really owned the small package of weed that had caused so much drama. He had been able to see his friends and Ivan again after that, he had his phone and computer time back too. He was also able to go to his football games. There were scouts in previous games but they would continue coming until the end of the season, which was coming towards him quickly. Al had already gotten a few calls from his coach, who had said that there were colleges already looking at him and that made him incredibly happy. But that happiness was dampened by words that Arthur had been speaking to him. 

"You need a back up plan. It's not realistic at all to put all your hopes in football. Why don't you study law or something instead?" Arthur had said various different versions of this already and Al was not enjoying it. He felt like Arthur was controlling him just a little bit. But how many times had Arthur told him that he was growing up and was old enough to make his own decisions? Yet here Arthur was, making Al feel that he still wasn't under complete control of his own life. At least not until he got his father's seal of approval.

It frustrated Al beyond belief. Couldn't Arthur just see that he was trying his hardest? His grades weren't good though and that seemed to be the only thing that Arthur was able to see. He was trying, trying so hard and it wasn't working. Al had decided to take classes that were at college levels so that they could prepare himself, but they were so hard. Al knew that going in but he couldn't help feeling completely inept. He believed he was stupid but he still tried. If he could just power through and study harder than he ever had in his entire life he could get good at it. But that didn't seem to be enough. He was just a tidal wave away from drowning and it made him panic. If only he was able to swim. If only he wasn't such a failure. 

* * *

Al was getting ready for school. It had been a typical morning for him. His alarm clock woke him up at the same time as every school day, five thirty. He would hit the snooze button until six o' clock and then drag himself out of bed. From there he would take a shower. Get dressed. Eat a bowl of cereal. Finish getting ready. Study some more and leave the house with Matt. But lately there had been another unwelcome thing added to his morning routine.

Al was eating his cereal in a half-asleep, mechanical way. Even though he had been awake for almost half an hour he still felt groggy. It really was too early to function. Why was school so early?

Al finished off the rest of his cereal and shuffled to the kitchen where he drank the left over milk and set the bowl into the sink. He didn't really have time to clean it, he wanted time to study some more before he headed to school. Al yawned and stretched before heading to his room. Before he could reach it though he was stopped by a sleepy Arthur.

"Morning dad," Al said and tried to slip past him.

"Good morning," Arthur said. "Are you ready for school? I could drop you two off a little early."

"No, it's okay. Matt hasn't even eaten yet and I'm going to study anyways," Al said. It was the wrong thing to say.

"You know you shouldn't put off your homework like that. It's irresponsible and you really need to learn some responsibility before you go to college," Arthur said.

Al clenched his jaw. He  _did_ know how to be responsible. He was making extra time to study after he had studied all day yesterday. But he just nodded.

"Yeah, I got it."

"You say that every time Alfred but when are you going to take some action?"

Al shrugged. There was no point in telling him if he wasn't going to listen or pay attention. Al was taking action, why couldn't he see that? Arthur sighed and went down the hallway. Al turned around and went into his room. He slammed his door, harder than he thought he would. It kind of surprised him how angry he was. He thought that he wouldn't let Arthur's words get to him. He knew what he was doing even though Arthur didn't and he thought that that would be enough. So why did he feel so disappointed in himself? Why did he feel that he  _still_ wasn't trying hard enough?

Al grabbed his backpack and threw it on the bed in frustration. He kept telling himself that he was fine. He wasn't angry or sad in any way.

Al got his English folder out. This was the class he really struggled with. All of these inferred meanings that his peers seemed to find yet he wasn't able to go past finding a simple juxtaposition. Even when he found something useful that he could share with the class he couldn't figure out  _why_ it was relevant. 

Al looked through a paper that he was to annotate. He had marked up nearly the entire page but he still felt like it wasn't nearly enough. No. It couldn't possibly be enough.

He ended up reading the paper three times and looking through his annotations, making changes here and adding some more detail in his description there. When he looked at the clock he had to stuff his folder back in his backpack. He wasn't satisfied with the paper. Even though his scrawl covered all of the margins of the paper and every other sentence was highlighted in yellow he was sure that he hadn't tried hard enough.  

Al put on his shoes and slung his backpack over one of his shoulders. He walked out into the living room where Arthur was getting his shoes on and Matt was standing near the door, waiting for everyone else to be ready. When Arthur finished tying his shoelaces they walked outside and to the car. They were all kind of tired so they didn't speak much, which Al was grateful for.

When they got to the school Al and Matt piled out of the car. They went inside and started their school day. Noisy hallways. People stopping abruptly to speak to other people. Al's name was called and people waved, an action he reciprocated. In class Al listened intently to his teachers, struggling to keep up. In his mind he chanted that he was an idiot and that he needed to listen so that he could learn. He took notes furiously, even when he didn't need to be. When he wrote down nearly every word the teacher said he was still nervous that he hadn't written enough down. 

The school day was finally over. It was Friday so it had felt especially long. Matt and Al took the bus home. Al sat next to some people that he spoke to and Matt sat at the front, next to one of his friends which Al had concluded was one of his stoner friends.

When Al got home Matt was immediately sent to his room and Al was standing in the living room with Francis and Arthur who were sitting on the couch. Al sat in one of the armchairs and then got a call. He wrestled with his pocket for a moment before he was finally able to get his phone out. The call was from his coach.

"Hey Alfred," his coach greeted.

"Hey what's up?" Al questioned.

"I was just wondering if you had decided on a college yet. I gave you a call before and told you about all the ones that were eager to have you. I was just wondering if you've picked already," Couch Ludwig said.

"Uh, no I haven't really decided yet," Al said, he slowly got up and started making his way to the hallway. 

"Alright that's fine. But if you ever need help deciding you can talk to me anytime got it?"

"Yeah, I got it, thanks," Al said gratefully. Coach Ludwig hung up and Al was left feeling relieved. Arthur had been bombarding him so much lately it was nice to hear something different.

"Who was that?" Francis asked curiously. 

"Oh it was just my coach, he just wanted to know if I had decided on a college," Al answered and plopped himself back into the arm chair.

"And have you?" Arthur asked.

"Nope," Al replied. "I still have a little while to decide anyways, it's not a big deal yet."

"It  _is_ a pretty big deal, Alfred," Arthur said. "It's your future we're talking about here. How about you go to the college that your father and I went to? It's local and it's well known for their medical programs."

"No thanks dad. I want to go into a college that's known for their sports program," Alfred said.

Arthur frowned. "Alright. But you know, even though your focus is going to be sports you still have to try hard in your other subjects."

"I know," Al said quietly. He closed his eyes and set his head back. 

"Do you really know?" Arthur said angrily. Francis quieted him with a look.

"Al," Francis said gently. "We've seen your grades. We know your struggling so we think that it might be time you get help."

"I don't need help," Al said. He knew that was a lie but pride had kept him from ever looking for a tutor. It had also kept him from even considering changing his classes, that would make things too easy. 

"Yes you do Alfred," Arthur said. He sighed and forced his tone to be gentler. "Look, maybe you should stop playing football so that you can focus on your school work."

Al opened his eyes and glared at his father. "Do you listen to me at all when I talk about what I want to do with my life? How many times have I said that what I want to do is football? Yet you seem to be pushing me towards pursuing a career that smart people have. News flash, dad I'm not smart and even if I was I would _still_ want to go into sports."

Francis' expression turned to shock. "Al, mon cher, do you really think that lowly of yourself?" Francis stood and went to Al's side. He brushed his hand through his hair. "You _are_ smart and we _do_ understand that what you want to do is football. Your father is just concerned about what will happen if football might not work out."

"It would be really nice if you had a back-up plan, Alfred," Arthur said.

"I just don't know what else I would do," Al said. His voice cracked at the end of his sentence and wetness trickled down one of his cheeks. Al hastily wiped it away and stood. "Never mind, you guys don't listen to me anyways."

Francis grabbed his arm. "We will listen to you Alfred. You just need to speak."

"No it's fine. I'm going out anyways."

Al stood and rushed out the front door.

Al went through his phone until he came across Tony's number. He called him and waited, still standing at the edge of his sidewalk. He kept looking back at the house. No one was coming after him. He told himself that that was good.

"Yo, what's up?" Tony greeted.

"Hey," Al said and fought to keep his voice from wavering. "Are your parents going to be home tonight?"

"Nope, why?"

"What do you say about having a party? At your place though. My parents are at my house right now, but I'm in a partying mood."

"Sounds awesome. I'll call Kiku."

"Is it cool if I invite Ivan too?" Al asked. He needed as much distraction as he could get.

"Yeah, it's cool."

"Oh and do you have alcohol?"

The line was silent for a little while. "Hey man is everything alright?"

"Yeah. I just thought that it's been a while since I've had anything to drink and maybe it would be alright to have some again."

"Are you sure?"

Al laughed nonchalantly. "Yeah, have a little more faith in me dude."

"Yeah I guess your right," Tony said reluctantly.

"So? Is there any, or do I need to go get some?"

It was silent again for a time. "Yeah. Yeah, my brother's always stashing away beer so there's plenty."

"Great. I'll be there with Ivan in a little while."

Al hung up. He began walking in the direction of Ivan's house as he scrolled through his contacts for him. After a couple of rings Ivan picked up.

"Hello," Ivan said cheerfully.

"Hey babe," Al replied. "There's going to be a little party at Tony's house tonight. Do you wanna come?"

"Yeah alright. I'm not doing anything. When is it?"

"Right now. I'm walking to your house as we speak."

"My house is a ten minute drive from yours, it's going to be a while before you get here, do you need me to pick you up?"

"Yeah, okay," Al said. He gave Ivan his location and waited not-so-patiently for him to come by. Finally when Ivan arrived Al hopped in the car and gave him directions for Tony's house. Of course Ivan, Tony and Kiku had met each other before. Ivan was Al's boyfriend and Tony and Kiku were his best friends so they had hung out together quite a few times. But Ivan had never been to one of their houses before.

When they finally arrived Al and Ivan climbed out of the car. Al waited for Ivan to come around before going up to the front door and letting himself in. Unsurprisingly the door was unlocked.

"Yo, Tony!" Al shouted into the house. He closed the door after Ivan had made it inside.

"Hey!" Two voices answered from the living room. Ivan was looking a little awkward so he smiled reassuringly and grabbed his hand. They both went into the room and situated themselves on the floor next to Tony and Kiku who had been passing the time with playing video games. Al and Ivan lived nearly a half- hour drive away from them so it wasn't that unusual for them to pass the time this way when they were waiting for Al to show up.

Al sighed and squished into Ivan's side. Ivan wrapped an arm around his waist. This is what he needed. He needed Tony and Kiku to be shouting at each other because one of them had soiled another's plans that would have allowed them to win a match. He needed to be wrapped in Ivan's arms and feeling secure. He needed to forget that he was stupid and that he was probably disappointing his parents because he had no other plans for his future other than a football career, a career that was known to very rarely become successful.

Al knew that he was running away from his problems. He would only disappoint his parents even more by doing this. But he really didn't know what else to do. Maybe he should have spoken to his parents instead of just leaving. But what would they have said? Arthur might have pushed him to look at other careers that he had no interest in again. He didn't want that, he had gotten enough of that already and whenever Arthur sighed when he insisted on football he felt like he was making a huge mistake. The only thing that was still letting him focus on football was when those sighs couldn't be heard and he was out there on the field, feeling free.

Al buried his face in Ivan's shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut. Ivan shrugged his shoulder lightly.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Al said and despite his wishes his voice cracked. Then there were fingers under his chin that forced him to look up.

"Your eyes are all watery," Ivan pointed out.

"I know, Ivan," Al said and swatted his hand away. He stood up. "Tony where's that beer that you said you had?"


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al finally confronts his anxieties.

Matthew threw his homework onto the bed. It was kind of late in the night and he had already been working on this since he got home. Teachers really did like to assign three questions that have twenty sub-questions each. It was a time consuming bother. Matt sighed and stretched. He decided that he would take a break and go get some brain food.

He stood and padded down the hallway. He had to pass his parent's room in order to get to the kitchen. But what he heard there was more than unsettling. He had heard Al and his parents fight. They had been doing a lot of that lately, although he found it weird that he had heard Al leave. Normally he would just storm into his room but this time was different. Matt was confined to his room though and he knew that his parents would be distraught so he had left it alone.

But now as he stood in the hallway, in front of his parent's cracked door he knew that this was a bigger fight than he had originally thought. There was no yelling though and Matt wasn't sure if that made the situation better or worse.

It might have been worse though because beyond that little crack that led to his parents room he heard a soft crying. There were also shushing noises being made and a low, comforting voice. Francis was the one who was doing the comforting. His voice was too quiet for Matt to make out any words but he could tell that they were still sad.

"I'm afraid that I haven't been doing a good job of listening to him. I feel like he might hate me now," Arthur was the one who had spoken. His voice was thick but still loud enough for Matt to pick up on.

Francis spoke next but his voice was soft and Matt was only able to pick up on a few words here and there. "If... fault.... don't... yourself."

Matt slowly backed away from their door. Snack forgotten, he fled to his room. He shut the door and hastily took out his phone. He brought up Al's number. He wanted to call him but he was sure that he would only be ignored if he did that. So instead he settled for a text.

**To Al: Dude, whatever happened you have got to call dad or papa and talk about it. It's not good over here.**

With his text sent Matt flopped back onto his bed. His leg crumpled his homework paper but he made no move to save it. He wondered what had happened. He had thought that it couldn't have been that bad but maybe he was wrong.

Then he remembered the talk that he had with Al after he had taken the blame for the weed. He had said that their parents were already really disappointed with him. That led Matt to ponder on how long Al had been struggling with their parents. Just when had this all actually started?

* * *

 Al had been drinking for most of the night. Due to his freshman year he was able to take a lot of alcohol but he didn't want that. He wanted to be a light weight, who after one beer could get completely smashed. He had downed the majority of Tony's stash and finally became drunk enough to fulfill his longing for a fuzzy brain. Somewhere in the back of his mind something was telling him to stop. But he didn't, not even when that little voice in his head became reality and his friends and Ivan were the ones relaying the message.

Finally after a while they had taken the beer away and hid it. But the damage was already done. 

Now Al was nibbling at Ivan's ear, whispering things to him at random intervals. Ivan was pushing him away constantly. He was clearly angry at Al but Al was too drunk to care. He moved onto Ivan's lap at one point and that was enough for Ivan. He pushed Al away and stood up.

"Okay, I'm taking you home. I'll let your parents and Matt handle you," Ivan said.

"Nooooo," Al whined. He seemed to sober for a moment as he looked at Ivan with pleading eyes. "Please don't take me back."

"Right," Tony said. "We know you're just afraid of your parents finding out that you're drunk. Well that's too bad, it's for your own good."

"Fine," Al said and barked with bitter laughter. "Fine. It's just one more thing that they can be disappointed about. The list is so long now what does one more matter anyways?"

Ivan, Tony and Kiku exchanged glances amongst themselves. They all surrounded Al. Ivan and Kiku sat by his sides and Tony sat on the floor in front of them. Ivan grabbed Al's hand and Kiku, his shoulder. 

"Did you get in a fight with your parents or something, man?" Tony asked. Al closed his eyes and didn't answer. He exhaled loudly and leaned on Ivan.

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Yeah, apparently," Tony said. "Explains why you decided to get drunk all of a sudden though."

Al snorted and moved his face so that it was buried in Ivan's scarf. He wasn't pushed away this time.

"Come on Al, you can tell us what's wrong," Kiku said.

Al came closer to Ivan and Ivan lifted his hand so he could brush his fingers through Al's hair.

"Tell us," Ivan said. It sounded like a harsh order coming from him but Al knew he was just trying to help him.

Al pulled away from Ivan and took his glasses off. He set them on the coffee table. They were covered in little droplets of water. Al squeezed his eyes shut and a few tears leaked out of his eyes. He pawed at them and lowered his head. This wasn't what he had originally wanted to do. He just wanted to forget for a little while. He didn't want to cry in front of his friends and boyfriend.

Ivan rubbed Al's arm. Al sniffled and breathed in deeply through his nose. "It's nothing really, you guys don't have to worry about me."

"You are  _crying,_ Al," Kiku said. Al shook his head and forced himself to smile. He didn't need anyone to worry about him.

"I'm pretty sure I got all emotional because I'm drunk off my ass," Al said lightly.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a fucking horrible liar?" Tony said.

Al chuckled. "Is it that obvious?" He hadn't meant to say that. It was hard to watch everything he was saying and he could feel his face slipping back into a frown. He leaned into Ivan again and curled against him. He closed his eyes and pretended that he was going to go to sleep. It wasn't so that everyone would leave him alone. It was just nice to pretend that he didn't have to think about anything else other than sleeping. He felt Ivan's fingers trace circles on his side and he squirmed. Ivan dug his fingers a little deeper into Al's side and he giggled despite himself. 

"Stop," Al said halfheartedly. Ivan's fingers danced against his side faster and he tried holding back a laugh. Then he felt something else brushing against his foot and then his knee cap. The tickling slowly escalated with Al pleading for mercy. He was laughing and his stomach hurt. Tears streamed down his face but they weren't bad. "St-stop! You all a-are assholes! S-s-stop!"

Al giggled and squirmed around. He slid down until he was lying across the couch and his head was in Ivan's lap. His friends all laughed maniacally as their torture made him squirm around.

"Not gonna stop until you open up," Tony said and attacked the back of his knee.

"Oh my g-god, stop! F-fine, fine! I'm going to piss myself, stop! I'll talk!" Al said, still laughing. Finally the wiggling fingers disappeared and he was left to catch his breath with his head resting on Ivan's lap and his legs on Kiku. After that his head felt a little clearer. His friends waited patiently for him to talk. Kiku and Tony sat in silence and so did Ivan, who twirled one of his fingers in a lock of Al's hair.

Finally after what felt like forever Al spoke. "It's my parents. Or- actually- it's more me. I mean, I'm really trying hard in school but it really doesn't feel like enough. I feel kind of stupid and inadequate all the time. Plus there's the fact that I don't really know what else I want to do with my life other than football."

"Wait that's what you've been angsting over?" Tony asked. "Dude, I feel ya. I think it's actually pretty common for people our age not being sure what to do. I mean, we're barely trusted to get tattoos and yet we have to decide the career we want for the rest of our future. It's kind of bullshit. But what's got you worried about a back up plan? I mean it's good to have one but you already have a plan A for now. I don't see why you need to rush a plan B."

"It's my dad," Al said. He gazed at the white ceiling above him. "He wants me to have something that I can fall back on. He keeps pushing me towards stuff that only really talented people can do, like being a doctor or something. But I'm not good enough for that shit, besides, I really don't see a future for myself if it can't be in football."

"I don't think that you should think about it too hard," Kiku said. "If it's really bugging you though then just tell it to your dad straight. Just tell him that football is the only thing you want to do, the only thing you see yourself doing. Besides, if you major in a sport can't you be a coach or something? That could be another fall back."

Al nodded. He probably should have thought of that. "That's a good idea, but I still just feel like I'm disappointing my parents with every decision I make, especially dad."

"I'm sure he's just concerned for you," Ivan said. Al nodded again. He closed his eyes. He was glad he had these three. They really helped with his thoughts. They made sure to reassure him and actually helped him think through this instead of just simply  _telling_ him what to do. He wanted to be able to swim himself to shore, he didn't want to rely on someone else completely and these three were slowly teaching him how to swim.

Al's phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out.

**From Brosive: **Dude, whatever happened you have got to call dad or papa and talk about it. It's not good over here.****

What does Matt mean that it's not good over there? Is Arthur throwing a fit? Al was at a loss, but even through the text Al felt like he could sense the distress that Matt must have been feeling when he sent it. Even though he was still a little tipsy he had to do something. He sat up and replied quickly.

**To Brosive: im going to be coming back soon**

Al slid his legs off of Kiku's lap and stood up. Everyone gave him a questioning look.

"I have to go, I think something's wrong at my house," Al said. Ivan stood as well.

"Alright, I'll take you," Ivan said.

Kiku and Tony watched them depart with rushed goodbyes as Al practically ran to the car. He wondered what the house would be like when he got home. Ivan hopped in and started the engine. To Al's relief Ivan sensed his distress and drove as fast as he could. When they returned to Al's home, Al left him with a hurried kiss on the lips and a thank you. He went into the house.

He creaked the front door open. He didn't know what he expected exactly but he was a little surprised that the house was silent. The only sound was Hero's nails as he went across the hard wood floor to greet Al. Al patted his head and scratched behind his ears for a moment before going deeper into the house. Of course Hero followed him and the soft thud of his shoes was accompanied by the sound of Hero's nails.

Al finally couldn't take the sound of his shoes clunking around and took them off. He set them next to the couch and prayed that he would remember to put them away later. He padded down the hallway and to his room. He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do here. Matt had said that things weren't all that good but it was peacefully quiet now. Maybe everyone had already gone to sleep in the twenty minutes that Ivan had managed to get him home in.

Al creeped down the hallway and stopped in front of his parent's door. There were voices coming from it. Al strained his ears but he wasn't able to make out any of the words that were being spoken. Al was about to step away when the floor board creaked underneath his weight. Crap.

The voices went silent and Al was frozen in place, not quite sure what to do with himself.

"Matthew?" Francis asked. "Do you need something?"

Al didn't move. What was he supposed to do? Should he confront his parents right now? He didn't even know what had caused Matt to send that text message and why he had rushed home yet. Al looked back at the cracked door. Yes. He should go talk to his parents. If he didn't do it soon then he might never do it. Al pressed his palm against the wood of the door and slowly let the door creak open.

"Alfred?" Arthur questioned.

"Yeah," Al said a little awkwardly. "Um, I kind of feel bad for just leaving without giving you guys a chance to listen to me. Or really let you talk to me anymore about this."

The bed sheets rustled and Al saw Arthur come out of bed. He went across the room and Al was afraid for a moment that he would be yelled at. He braced himself for the onslaught but it never came. Instead he was being wrapped in his father's arms. He stood in shock for a moment before tentatively returning the embrace.

"I'm sorry," Arthur muttered. "I should have listened to you more instead of telling you what to do."

"It-it's okay dad, really," Al said.

Arthur pulled away and searched Al's face. "No, no I should have been there for you more than I was."

The bed rustled some more and Francis was there with them. "We were all doing a very poor job of communicating. Come on, let's go into the living room, I'll make us some hot chocolate."

Francis went into the kitchen and Al and Arthur carried on to the living room. Arthur sat in the armchair and Al took a side of the couch. The silence wasn't too obvious. They were both brooding over how they should tell each other what was on their mind. Of course Arthur was trying to make it so that he wasn't passively controlling Al like he had been doing for so long without even realizing. Al was thinking about how best to deliver his speech without hurting either of his parents, or disappointing them.

Francis returned after a little while with warm mugs for each of them. The smell of chocolate filled Al's nose as he tilted the cup back for his first taste of the beverage. It was at a near perfect temperature and the chocolate was tasty. Al set the mug down on the coffee table. It was good but he wasn't sure he would be able to enjoy it with the nervous knot that twisted his stomach.

Francis started. "So we're going to ignore the fact that you smell like alcohol for now so we can focus on what we really need to talk about."

Al realized that he probably did smell like beer, considering how much he had drunk when he was at Tony's house. He shrunk in on himself a little bit at the realization.

 "What are you going to do about your grades this year?" Arthur asked.

Al let his shoulders sag. "I don't know. I feel like I'm drowning here. I'm really trying but nothing seems to make it to my brain. I really don't know what to do, I just feel so stupid."

Francis settled next to him and rubbed his arm. "Everyone has their hard years Alfred. If you want, your father and I can look for a tutor for you. You don't have to power through this completely alone."

Alfred stared at his mug that rested on the coffee table. He did know that he needed help so he swallowed his pride for just a moment to say one little sentence. "Yeah, could-could you maybe find me a tutor?"

Francis smiled. "Of course." 

"Okay, onto the next topic. Tell us what you want to do Alfred," Arthur said, almost pleaded. "Tell us what you really want to do after high school."

"I want to go to college," Al said without hesitation. "But I want to go to one that is known for its sports program. I will not do anything else. Even if my career as an athlete falls through the cracks I can still become a coach."

"And that's what you want to do?" Arthur asked. Al nodded in conformation.

"That's perfectly fine Alfred," Francis said. He smiled encouragingly.

"We will support you no matter what you choose," Arthur said. Al let a small smile curl his lips. "Now that we're done with those topics I must ask you; what the hell caused you to come home smelling like beer?"

Al winced at the sudden change of tone. He didn't really want to tell his parents the real reason he had gone to alcohol. "I- it's nothing really. I guess just the pressures of being a teenager?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Has anyone ever told you that your a bloody horrible liar?"

Al snorted. "Yeah, I think I've heard that before at some point."

Francis squeezed his arm. "Was it just stress?"

"Yeah, I guess," Al said. "It just all started piling up. The bad grades. You and dad."

"What about us?" Francis coaxed.

Al hesitated. Arthur and Francis gave him encouraging looks. Well... he guessed it couldn't hurt to tell them. "W-well, I kind of felt like you guys were really disappointed in me. For nearly everything. My grades. My career choice. Sometimes I even felt like you didn't approve of Ivan even though we've been dating for more than a year now."

Francis frowned and wrapped Al into a hug. "Oh mon cher, we could never be disappointed in you for trying so hard and for pursuing the career that you want. On the contrary. We are so incredibly proud of you."

"Really?" Al said. He felt like a child looking for approval from his parents. Of course that might be every child's dream is to have a parent who could smile at them and tell them that they were proud of them. Age doesn't make such dreams go away, at sixty years old a child could still look at their parent with the glistening eyes of an eight year old, looking for that pride that guided them their whole lives.

"Really," Francis and Arthur said simultaneously. Al beamed and smiled at them.

"I think it's time you go to sleep," Arthur said. Al nodded and stood up. He could do this. It was time that he stopped calling himself stupid. It was time to swallow his pride so that he could ask for help. It was time that he started becoming proud of himself. He not only needed his parents approval for his life, he needed his own and he intended to get it.

He could feel it. The waves were getting smaller and his head was able to stay above water. He could swim now and the shore was just a few powerful strokes away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, all the angst is mostly done and over with. There will be no more angst chapters for the future though there might be a little sadness I don't really know for sure yet. But one thing I do know for sure is that this fic is coming to a close. Just in case you haven't seen already I have decided on when this baby is going to end. There will be only three more chapters unfortunately. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this for so long! I really didn't expect this fic to get as much attention as it did and I'm really grateful! Thank you so, so much for reading :)


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prucan, prucan, prucan, prucan!

Matt's feet swished through the grass on his school's campus. He was following Felicks to where he had parked his car. They were in their usual little group except this time they weren't leaving to smoke. Matt had decided that it would be in his best interest to quit, not just to avoid the incident that had gotten him into trouble but because he thought he would be a lot healthier if he did so.

They all walked into the parking lot and Felicks unlocked his car before half of their group piled in. Matt hopped into the passenger seat of Felicks' car.  They had agreed that they would hang out the day that Matt finally became free again. So here he was, sitting shot gun in the little silver car that Felicks drove. He was going to his house but as usual they had to pick up Gilbert first.

Matt was relatively silent other than to answer questions about what he had been up to for the time he had been grounded. Other than that he let the other people talk and tell him about how these past months had been. Of course he had seen them everyday at school and spoken to them then but it still kind of felt like a reunion. Because of that they swapped stories and told each other how they had been.

Finally they pulled up in front of Gilbert's house and Matt felt excitement. The only one he hadn't really spoken to was Gilbert. The only chance he ever got was when he had finally gotten his phone back and was able to text him. Now he was finally able to see him again after so long. But it was just because Gilbert was a good friend, not any other reason. He had sworn off ever liking one of his friends romantically.

Gilbert came out of his house and turned his back to lock the door. Had he become more muscular in the time that Matt was away? He looked like it. The way his back muscles flexed when he hunched over his doorknob was different. Matt caught himself staring and quickly looked away. Unable to resist again though he watched Gilbert walk down to the car. He got a good view of his chest. Yep, Gilbert had definitely been working out.

Gilbert hopped into the back of the car on seeing that the front seat was already being occupied by Matt. When Gilbert first saw him he grinned. Matt smiled back. Once Gilbert was in the car Felicks began to drive. Gilbert clapped Matt on the shoulder from behind.

"Whose this cutie?" he asked, just like the first time they had met. "I hardly didn't even recognize you."

Matt swatted his hand away playfully. "Right. I don't think I've changed at all. My hair and the way I dress is still the same as last time I met you. I'm pretty sure it's  _you_ who has changed."

"Oh so you noticed I've been working out, huh?" Gilbert said. Matt could hear him trying not to laugh and he felt his face heat up.The way Gilbert said that made Matt think that he watched Gilbert more than a friend would. Matt stopped himself. He was being ridiculous. Anyone would have noticed a change their friend went through if it was big like that. Especially after being apart for so long. Matt spent the rest of the drive trying to avoid staring at Gilbert from any of the rear view mirrors.

They got to Felicks' house. When Matt entered he realized just how much he missed hanging out in this place with his friends. Everyone moved into the living room, which smelled faintly of weed. But when Matt got there there were no bongs set out or anything. He looked at Felicks with a question on his face. He was quitting but it wasn't like he was expecting everyone else to do that too.

Felicks shrugged. "We know you're quitting so we thought that maybe we should hold ourselves back. At least for the first time we're meeting up again."

Matt smiled. He knew he had finally found some good friends.

"Wait you're quitting?" Gilbert asked.

"Yeah, didn't I tell you?" Matt asked.

"No," Gilbert said. "But whatever, that's really good Matt. You'll get healthier this way." Matt nodded, still smiling. Gilbert slung his arm over Matt's shoulders and grinned at him. They held eye contact for a while before Matt finally looked away, sure that his cheeks were red. Gilbert kept looking at him though.

"What?" Matt asked. When Gilbert didn't answer he looked back at him. "What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Gilbert seemed to snap back from wherever he was. "Nothing. It's just nice to have you back, little man."

" _Little?_ Gilbert, I'm two inches shorter than you," Matt said. Gilbert booped his nose.

"Two inches is enough difference for me to make fun of you," Gilbert said.

"Really? Two inches of difference, huh? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've beat you there," Matt said. Gilbert looked at him in confusion and then understanding dawned on his face.

"Wow," Gilbert said with a smirk. "Is that a challenge?"

Matt laughed into his hand. "No, please keep it in your pants."

Everyone had migrated into the living room but the two of them were still messing around in the entry hallway. Gilbert stopped laughing but a faint smile was still on his face.

"I really did miss you, you know," Gilbert said. He moved away from Matt and started towards the living room. "Come on. We can't hang out near the door like a couple of weirdos."

Matt followed him into the living room. He was pretty sure he was keeping his outward appearance in check but on the inside his brain was moving a million miles an hour. Gilbert had said that he missed him, and it was totally sincere. But after that he had brushed it off and went back to normal. Maybe Matt was looking into things too much. Maybe Gilbert hadn't meant it in the way that he thought he did. Matt sat in his usual spot on the couch and Gilbert sat next to him. He slung his arm over the back of the chair and Matt could occasionally feel him brush against his hair.

Everyone else was watching TV and passing around a box of dry cereal, taking a handful and passing it to the next person in the circle. Matt reached into the box and grabbed some before handing it over to Gilbert. Their fingers brushed when Gilbert took a hold of the box. Matt brought his hand back and rubbed where Gilbert had touched him. He freaking hated this. His hand felt all tingly yet there was nothing wrong with it at all.

"Hey, can someone get soda?" Felicks asked.

"Dude, it's your house, get it yourself," someone else retorted. Matt stepped in before they started bickering like he and Al. This must be what his parents feel like all the time.

"I'll get it, don't worry." Matt stood up and headed to the kitchen. Gilbert did too.

"There's no way you can take it all to them," Gilbert said. Matt was pretty sure he could carry a box of soda out to the living room by himself but he didn't protest. When they got to the kitchen Matt went immediately to the fridge, where he knew the sodas were. Before he could open it though Gilbert's hand was pushing on the door so he couldn't get to the fridge. Matt looked towards Gilbert.

"What is it?" Matt asked. Gilbert wasn't looking at him but the ground and was chewing his lip.

"Can we stop this? This tip toeing around each other?" Gilbert said.

"What do you mean?" Matt asked.

"I mean that I like you Matt," Gilbert said. "Since the first time we met I've liked you. When I saw you again today I think I realized just how much I like you. But I don't know how _you_ feel and today I was getting mixed signals and I don't know if that's just me or if maybe, just maybe you like me back."

Matt didn't know what to say. Well, he did, but he had tried so hard to not have to say it. But there it was. He liked Gilbert too. He did even though in his past experience friends who then became boyfriends didn't have the happiest of endings.

"Matt?" Gilbert asked after Matt had been silent for a while. He sounded heartbroken. Matt didn't know what to do. If he lied to Gilbert so he could take the easy way out he would get hurt. But if he told Gilbert the honest truth he might still get hurt. How would knowing Matt had feelings for him but wasn't going to act on them even make Gilbert feel?

"I-" Matt started. He wasn't sure where he was planning on going with this.

"You what?" Gilbert asked patiently. Matt thought that he shouldn't be being as patient as he was.

"I like you too," Matt said without thinking. He knew it was true but he hadn't planned on telling Gilbert.

"You do?" Gilbert said in disbelief. He took a step forward but Matt took two back and looked at his feet.

"But I don't want to go into a romantic relationship," Matt said. "Past experience has made me nervous to start another one, especially with a friend. I'm sorry."

Gilbert was silent and Matt peeked up to look at his reaction. Surprisingly, he didn't look hurt or angry or frustrated, he just looked... thoughtful.

"So you started dating someone who used to be your friend then? And since you're single right now I'm assuming you broke up." Gilbert pondered. "Was this person like me at all?"

Matt thought about it. "No, not at all."

"So why do you think our relationship will be the same as one that you had with someone who is different then me."

"I- I don't know," Matt said. "All I know is that I don't want our relationship to end up the same way my past one did. But I don't know how to prevent that. What happened before just kind of... happened and I don't know where we went wrong. There's nothing for me to go off of so I'm afraid it's going to happen again."

"What _did_ happen exactly?" Gilbert asked.

"Well we started off as friends but when our romantic relationship grew we kind of stopped talking. I don't know I kind of got the feeling that we couldn't keep up normal conversations after seeing each other naked. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we were around each other almost all the time, but it didn't feel like he was actually there, if that makes any sense."

"So it was only physical and you wanted something more emotional?" Gilbert asked.

Matt snorted. "Don't say it like that, it makes me sound like a girl."

Gilbert strode forward and grabbed Matt's chin. "You make that sound like a bad thing. What's so bad about being a girl? Well that's beside the point really. What's so bad about wanting to love someone?"

Matt gazed into Gilbert's red eyes. "You could get your heart broken."

Gilbert leaned down and whispered. "What if you meet someone who would never do that to you? Not in a million years."

Their faces were so close. All Matt would have to do was tilt his head just a little and their lips would meet.

"I- I might just have to kiss them," Matt said. So he tilted his head and did just that. Everything stopped. The sound of the TV could no longer be heard and there was no one else in the world but them. They were floating and Matt's hands on Gilbert's shoulders and his lips on Gilbert's were the only things keeping him from floating away. There were muffled voices that broke through but Matt ignored them and so did Gilbert.

"Woah, Felicks, there have been some interesting developments in your kitchen!" one of the voices finally jolted them back to reality and they pulled apart shyly.

"God dammit, if they're having sex in there I will fucking murder them," Felicks said.

"Nah, they were just making out," the same guy who had dragged them back replied. Everyone in the living room laughed.

"Sh-shut up Lovi, don't be an ass," Gilbert stuttered. He turned so that he could get into the refrigerator and took the sodas out.

"I can be an asshole whenever I want. Especially when I have to wait ten minutes for a goddamn soda," Lovino said. "Besides, everyone knew you guys liked each other anyways, we all knew it was only a matter of time."

Matt blushed as he followed Gilbert and Lovino out into the living room. He sat back down on the couch and Gilbert sat beside him. Before Lovino sat back down he held out his hand to Felicks.

"I called it so I think you owe me ten bucks," Lovino said.

Felicks sighed and got his wallet out. "I really wish you guys kissed sooner. Then I wouldn't be down any money."

Lovi directed his words towards Gilbert and Matt. "I bet on you two waiting for a year before making a move. Felicks thought you would do it a few months after you two met."

"I can't believe you two made a bet on us," Gilbert muttered.

Felicks put the money into Lovi's open palm begrudgingly.

"Thank you," Lovi gloated as he sat back down. Everyone laughed and passed soda cans to those with empty hands. Soon there was the sound of soda cans opening filling the room and then it was silent as they turned back to the TV. Someone had changed the channel to one that was playing Captain America and everyone was enthralled in the movie. Matt slowly moved one of his hands off of his can and to the space that was beside himself and Gilbert. Gilbert seemed to have the same idea and their hands met halfway, just like in the movies. Matt had never dreamt that he would have a romance movie with someone. He thought he had some with Carlos. But this time it was different. It was less awkward and it felt right.

Matt turned his head and smiled at Gilbert. The other boy did the same and they clasped their pinkies together.

* * *

It had been a month since their confessions in Felicks' kitchen and it was time for Gilbert to meet Matt's parents. They had agreed that they would make it over the weekend so it was convenient for everyone. Francis and Arthur didn't have work and Gilbert was already going to college and he didn't have any classes over the weekend. Now Matt was waiting in his room. He was wearing one of his nicer shirts. He did this on his first date with Gilbert but he told Matt that he didn't have to do that. But now Gilbert was meeting his parents and Matt felt like he should dress well for something like this.

After a while he decided that it would be less awkward if he was the one who answered the door when Gilbert finally arrived and relocated himself to the living room. He couldn't seem to sit still. It wasn't nervousness but more like anticipation. He was excited to introduce his parents to the person that he cared for a lot. He had never felt this strongly about a person before and he wanted his parents to know just how important Gilbert really was to him.

When the doorbell rang Matt shot up and ran to the door with a shout into the house. "I got it!"

He heard Arthur come into the room behind him as he flung the door open. Gilbert stood there, shuffling his feet. He looked good with in his dark purple blazer and black button-up underneath. Gilbert looked relieved when Matt opened the door. He must have been worried about Matt's parents answering the door too.

"Hey," Matt said cheerfully. They kissed each other on the cheek before Gilbert made his way inside. Matt told him that it was fine if he took his shoes off. Gilbert complied and followed Matt into the house. He had been in here before, but that was when Matt's parents weren't home. When they got to the living room Arthur was there, smiling. Hero finally decided to stop barking and actually come down and investigate who had disturbed his nap. He nudged into Gilbert's leg and licked his hand. Looks like he recognized him.

"Gilbert this is my dad. Dad, Gilbert," Matt said, taking charge of the introductions.

Gilbert hurried forward and stuck his hand out. Arthur took it and they shook hands. "I-It's nice to meet you Mr. Kirkland."

Gilbert knew how to address his parents and who was who because he had practically begged Matt to tell him nearly everything about his family before he came over. Matt wasn't all that worried, he knew that his parents would like Gilbert, but he still complied and told him everything he needed to know.

Arthur smiled. "It's nice to meet you Gilbert. Matt talks about you all the time."

Matt flushed and Gilbert finally seemed to drop some of his nervousness enough to look at Matt and smile. "He talks about you a lot too Mr. Kirkland. You _and_ Mr. Bonnefoy."

Arthur opened his mouth to answer but shuffling and the clink of plates being set onto the table interrupted. Arthur excused himself and went to help Francis set the table. Gilbert was going to follow him and help when Matt pulled him into a kiss.

"You're nervous," Matt stated. "Why are you nervous?"

"Well they're the parents of my boyfriend, I really want them to approve of us," Gilbert said. 

"They will. They know how much I care about you, that in and of itself is enough for them. As long as you care about me too."

Matt picked a piece of Hero's fur off of Gilbert's shirt. Geez, he hadn't even been here for five minutes and Hero was already getting his fur everywhere.

"I do care about you. A lot," Gilbert said and brushed his thumb across Matt's cheek. 

"Then there's nothing to be nervous about," Matt said. He turned his head and kissed Gilbert's palm. "Come on, let's go eat."

Gilbert seemed calmer as they made their way into the dining room. Arthur was seating himself and Francis was just setting down the food.

"Ah, hello, you must be Gilbert," Francis said and removed his oven mitts.

"Yes, it's nice to finally meet you Mr. Bonnefoy," Gilbert said as they shook hands.

Francis smiled. "Just Francis is alright."

"A-alright," Gilbert said. Matt took his hand and guided him to the side of the table that was unoccupied. They both sat down and served themselves after Matt's parents had gotten their portion. Gilbert didn't take a bite until everyone else had. Matt thought that he must still be nervous. Normally, he would have dug in already.

Then the conversation started. At first it kind of sounded like Arthur was interrogating Gilbert but Francis would usually smooth it over with a polite rephrasing. Arthur eased up after a while and they fell into normal conversation. Kind of like the kind that Matt and his family would normally have at the dinner table, minus him and Al bickering. Al was out with his friends tonight so he wasn't in. Matt thought it would be better that way because when he had told Al that he had started dating Carlos he actually got protective, like Arthur. There was no way that Gilbert could have handled Arthur  _and_ Al on the same night. 

When dinner was over Gilbert kept thanked Francis for the food. He offered to help clean up but Arthur and Francis had both declined. He wouldn't have been able to help even if they had accepted anyways because Matt was already dragging him off to his room. When they got inside Matt kissed him softly.

"Okay, I wasn't nervous at first but when dad started questioning you like that I couldn't help it. You're seriously amazing for being able to put up with that," Matt said.

Gilbert rested his forehead on Matt's. "So I was able to pull a straight face off? That's good because I was freaking out on the inside."

Gilbert pulled away and flopped onto the bed. Something soft fell on his face and he pulled it up to see what it was. It was an old looking, white teddy bear.

"Uh," Matt said and hastily pulled it out of Gilbert's hands. "I forgot to put him away, sorry."

"You assigned a gender to your teddy bear?" Gilbert teased and sat up.

"Shut up," Matt said and stroked the bear's head once before turning to his closet.

"How come I haven't seen him before?" Gilbert asked. Matt didn't turn around when he answered.

"It's a little embarrassing to have other people know that you still sleep with a teddy bear," Matt mumbled. Gilbert chuckled and stood up. He hugged Matt from behind and took the bear back into his hands.

"It's actually really cute," Gilbert said and kissed the back of Matt's head. Matt's face and ears turned red. "Now I have another thing to add to the list of reasons why I love you."

It took a moment for Matt to register his words. "Did you just say-"

Matt was gripped by his shoulders and turned around. "Yep," Gilbert said with a grin.

Matt felt his face pull into a huge smile. "I love you too."

Matt tucked his head under Gilbert's chin and they embraced with the bear in between them. After a while Gilbert finally convinced Matt to let him go back out and talk to his parents some more. Gilbert felt like he was being rude when he shut himself away from them when his entire visit was so that he could speak with them and get to know them better. The rest of the evening was spent enjoyably. Gilbert finally left after a couple more hours and Matt walked him to the door.

He followed Gilbert outside and shut the door when he stepped onto the patio. The concrete was cold against his bare feet. He kissed Gilbert one more time.

"I love you," Matt said, loving the taste of those words.

"I love you too," Gilbert said and smiled. "God. I'm never going to get tired of saying that to you." 


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Al and their boyfriends go on a double date to celebrate the beginning of their college days and Al's sudden urge to get over his childhood fear of Halloween.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's the second to last chapter now but I don't know when the final chapter is going to come out. I'm going on a trip this weekend and I most likely won't have any wifi so it might be a little late or it might not be I really don't know I'm just telling you guys in case it is late

Matt and Al had been living on their own for nearly three weeks. They had started college. Matt had gone to the local college and Al had gone to the well known college that was known for their sports program and for their science program. Ivan had gone with him and they were currently living together. Matt and Gilbert agreed that it was too early in their relationship to start living together. Even though they had been dating for seven months they thought that they should wait longer. They were going to different colleges anyways so they thought it would be for the best.

When Matt and Al had left their house there were goodbyes that had made them all cry. Francis and Arthur helped them pack with wet eyes. They just couldn't believe how quickly their sons had grown up. Matt was the first one to leave. His school year began earlier than Al's did. He had been nervous at first. But he soon learned that there was nothing to worry about. He had been nervous about his classes being too hard but so far he had been keeping up. Living alone had also worried him. He didn't get a roommate, which was actually really nice sometimes, although his room was the size of a broom closet.

Al had moved into a small apartment with Ivan. They couldn't afford much so it was one room with a bathroom and that was it. Al had a little more trouble with his classes than he thought he would. It was hard to find time when he was balancing his classes and his practice together. He also didn't want to neglect Ivan but he had been reassured that Ivan understood. The beginning was rough but he was slowly getting the hang of it.

Now Al and Matt had agreed on a day to meet. Matt had finally convinced Al to go to a haunted house. His brother was a real wimp when it came to this stuff, so obviously he told everyone who knew Al that he was going to go to a haunted house. Gilbert had asked if he could come and of course Matt had said that that was perfectly fine. He hardly had any time to see Gilbert and when they met up Matt would often times take a text book. Gilbert would do the same thing though so they would both end up going on a study date, holding hands, reading and sipping coffee.

After Gilbert had asked, Ivan had asked Al if he could come along as well. He was coming because he didn't want to miss Al most likely pissing himself. He almost got denied because of that but Al couldn't say no to the scarfed bastard so he was coming too. Then that suddenly turned into a double date. Matt and Ivan invited Tony and Kiku as well but they found Al's scream annoying after attempting to play so many horror games with him.

Now Matt and Gilbert were waiting at the gates of a place that they had heard was a pretty good one to go to. Al was running late so they took advantage of the fact that they didn't have any text books in front of them. They talked and occasionally broke their conversation for a moment to give one another a quick peck on the lips.

Finally, Al and Ivan arrived. Al had his shoulders hunched and was walking behind Ivan. He was scowling. When Ivan and him got close enough Matt spoke.

"Did Al resist?" he asked.

Ivan nodded and smiled. "Then I called him a baby about a dozen times and he finally started to get ready."

Matt and Gilbert laughed.

"Don't make fun of me for something that kills hundreds of people in horror movies," Al grumbled.

"I'll protect you when we get home," Ivan said and wrapped his arm around Al's waist.

Al scoffed. "I can take care of myself just fine."

Matt laughed. "Remember when you had to sleep in dad and papa's room because you couldn't handle watching a second of a horror movie? I remember, ya big baby."

"Like _you_ can make fun of me for being a baby," Al said. "You still have a teddy bear that you sleep with."

Matt scowled and held up the hand that was being clasped by Gilbert's. "I have boyfriend approval. He thinks it's cute."

"Well Ivan thinks it's cute when I cuddle up to him when I'm scared," Al retorted.

Ivan and Gilbert gave each other a look.

"This is what we've gotten ourselves into," Gilbert said. 

Ivan sighed. "Are we crazy for dating these two?" Al and Matt didn't seem to notice the other conversation going on as they fought.

"Probably," Gilbert said and smiled. He tugged on Matt's hand to get his attention. "Hey, we should probably go do the thing that we all came here to do."

"All right," Matt said and directed his words to Al over his shoulder. "Try not to cry."

Al harrumphed and let Ivan lead him to the entrance of the haunted house. They had to wait in line for a while before they were even let in but when they got inside a blast of air slapped them all in the face and blew their hair back. Everyone laughed except for Al, who had jumped because of his edginess. He laced his fingers with Ivan's and hid-halfway behind his shoulders. Ivan cruelly tugged him back out into the open and Al hugged as closely to his side as he could without tripping the both of them up.

It was dark inside and Al could barely see anything at all. When a tattered piece of netting or cobwebs waved in the shadows Al would stare at it nervously, watching to see if it would be one of the things that was going to come out and grab at him. Ivan would occasionally shake a little with a chuckle, although Al couldn't hear him because of the random screams and his own heart pounding in his ears he knew Ivan was laughing.

He scowled up at Ivan and hit him on the arm. "Don't _laugh_. This is scary."

Ivan laughed a little more before squeezing Al's hand in reassurance. Al felt better at Ivan's support but that soon stopped when the screaming suddenly ceased and it became dead silent. Everyone in their little group slowed and looked around cautiously, determined not to be caught by a jump scare. Even the people in front of them had slowed down and surveyed their surroundings nervously.

Al soon became nothing but a bundle of nerves and grabbed the edge of Ivan's scarf. He buried his face in it and inhaled sharply so he could try to calm himself down. He still clung to Ivan's side.

He groaned. "This was a mistake. A very big mistake."

"Don't be such a wimp Al, we're fi- _AH!"_ Matt was cut off by a random and decrepit hand shooting out from the darkness and tugging on Matt's hair, just hard enough for him to know that  _something_ was there. He practically jumped into Gilbert's arms and clutched at his chest. "Fuck."

"I think we're starting to see eye to eye here," Al said. Ivan pretty much had to drag him past the place that Matt had been frightened. He looked towards the space that he was sure the arm had come out of. Sure enough he spotted a small rectangular hole in which a diseased woman peeked at him through. He made Ivan hurry along.

The rest of the walk down the haunted hallways and past the cells with ghastly noises coming from them caused the entire group to gasp and shout in fear and surprise at times. They were pulled at and screamed at and even chased once before they were unceremoniously dumped into the moonlit parking lot. It had kind of felt like the house had ended abruptly but it was no matter because three out of the four boys in their group smiled and laughed cheerfully.

"That was so much fun, we have to come back," Gilbert said. Al was bent over and panting, fighting off the threat of a heart attack.

"That was your idea of _fun?_ Were you guys even doing the same thing that I was?" Al gasped and forced himself to straighten. Everyone's shoulders were shaking but they all had their faces turned and covered so that he couldn't see them smiling. Al frowned. Geez, these guys wouldn't give him a break would they?

Ivan saw Al's angry expression and dropped his hand, revealing a smile. "Don't take it too hard, Al. I personally think it's cute when you get all scared like that." 

"Shut up," Al muttered. But he strode forward and hugged Ivan anyways. He buried his face in the crook between Ivan's shoulder and neck. "I swear to god if you do  _anything_ to scare me tonight I'm depriving you of your favorite thing for a week." 

Ivan gasped dramatically. "No."

"Yes," Al said.

"Can  _you_ even last that long?" Ivan teased.

"If I'm angry enough, yeah," Al said and pulled away. He looked for Matt and found him and Gilbert talking a little ways off. They were holding hands and standing pretty close. Too close for decency in Al's opinion.

"You're thinking about Matt and Gilbert aren't you?" Ivan asked. "Just so you know I think the protective brother act is cute too."

"It's not an act," Al huffed. "I  _am_ a protective brother. Can't help it though. Not when they're standing so close to each other."

"Calm down, we're standing closer," Ivan said. Al blushed and pulled away. He thought it was ridiculous how Ivan could still make him flustered, even after they had been together for so long.

"Can we go home?" Al asked. "I don't think I can cope with the horrors I've just witnessed without junk food and a crappy comedy."

Ivan smiled. "Alright, let's go."

Matt and Gilbert were rubbing noses and Al cleared his throat to get their attention. "Yo lovebirds, we're going to head out."

Matt pulled away from Gilbert enough to address his brother. "Okay, see ya later."

"Don't do anything funny," Al said as he and Ivan left.

True to Al's plans, when they got home they dined on buttery popcorn and Twinkies while watching a crappy movie that made Al forget that he had ever had first hand experience with dealing with ghosts and zombies.

Matt and Gilbert went out to dinner. It wasn't all that nice of a place but, as sappy as it sounds, they were just glad that they were there with each other. They hadn't seen each other in what felt like forever so they ended their night early so they could get started on some more interesting endeavors.

So ended the night that Matt constantly made fun of Al for and the night that had possibly scarred Al for life. 


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Every child is a story yet to be told."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it guys, the last chapter. I know I said this a few chapters ago but I didn't expect this to get so much attention and I'm super, super grateful to everyone who has read this or commented or given it kudos. I really did have a lot of fun with this and I'm kind of sad to see it go, but everything has an end. Again, thank you for reading, you're all amazing! :)

Francis and Arthur were returning from their date night. Matthew and Al were in their sophomore year of college now. They were both still with their boyfriends from high school, Al had even gotten engaged. Their parents were happy for them, not to mention immensely proud. Al's career in football was going well. His college team had been winning many games and he was becoming a distinguished member in the world of college football. Meanwhile, Matt was in med school and had plans of becoming a pediatrician. he discovered that he liked working with kids and decided on a career.

Francis and Arthur couldn't have been prouder. Lately though the house had been quiet. They knew they should have become used to it after all this time but after eighteen years of hearing their sons bickering everywhere in the house and blasting their music in their rooms sometimes the silence was oppressing. These nights caused Francis and Arthur to go on dates and they seemed to be doing quite a lot of that lately. It was nearly Christmas anyways and this happened with them last year. The anticipation of seeing their boys again after months of being confined to Skyping made them restless.

Now they were just returning back from a little restaurant that the two of them wanted to try out. It had actually been really good and they planned on going back. They were probably going to take Al and Matt with them next time too. They only had to wait a week to see them so it wouldn't be too long of a wait. Arthur was sitting in the passenger seat as Francis drove them home. The heat from their left overs made Arthur's lap warm and the smell of it wafted throughout the car. Francis and Arthur's hands rested lightly on each other and occasionally Francis would lift Arthur's hand and kiss it. Arthur remembered that earlier in their relationship he would have snapped at Francis and told him not to be so embarrassing. Now he could hardly imagine why he would ever say that. Things had changed too much and he couldn't imagine Francis being any different than he was now, the man he was going to turn all wrinkly and gray with, the man that he had raised his children with. The man that he loved so much.

When Arthur and Francis returned home Francis took their coats and hung them up while Arthur went into the kitchen and put their leftovers into the fridge. He returned back into the living room and collapsed onto the couch. He had had a long day at work. Going out with Francis had made him feel better and now he was tired because his stomach was full of good food. Francis came up beside him and rested his head on Arthur's shoulder.

Arthur ran his hands through Francis' hair. It was silky, like it had always been but a slightly different shade of blonde from when they were younger. He had begun growing gray hairs and had resorted to dyeing it. He had tried to get Arthur to do it too but Arthur didn't want to bother with it, instead he had humbly let himself become peppered with gray.

Arthur rested his head on Francis' head and closed his eyes for a moment. After a while he sat up straight and shrugged his shoulder lightly, jostling Francis a little. 

"We should go to bed," Arthur said tiredly.

"Oh? Is that a proposition?" Francis asked but he didn't move.

"You and I are both far too tired for that," Arthur said and yawned as if to emphasize his point. They stayed in place for a few more minutes and then Francis finally began to shift, only to move just enough to get off of Arthur's shoulder.

"Ugh, I don't want to get up," Francis said and wrapped his arms around Arthur's neck. "Carry me."

"Right,  if that's what it takes to get you to sleep in a comfy bed I'm going to leave you out here," Arthur said.

"No," Francis whined, extending the vowel in that single word. 

"Then get-" Arthur was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. He sighed and got up. Hero jumped up from where he had been lying on the floor and began barking.

Francis gave Arthur a questioning look and Arthur shrugged.

"I'm not sure," Arthur said. "But as I was going to say- get up yourself." 

"So cruel," Francis said in mock hurt. He got up anyway and started shushing Hero. In the meantime Arthur opened their front door. Standing there was a little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked dirty, kind of like he had been playing outside all day.

Arthur looked behind him for any type of adult that might claim the boy as theirs but the road was deserted and dark.

"Um, hello there," Arthur said as nicely as he could. "Can I help you?"

"Do you have any food I can eat?" the strange boy asked. It occurred to Arthur then that the boy was pretty scrawny and that he looked like he hadn't had a good meal for a while.

Arthur blinked in surprise. "Ah, yes, yes we do." Arthur stepped aside to let the boy in. Was he homeless? "Francis, we have a guest."

Francis straightened from a now quite Hero and watched as the boy entered their house.

"Hello," Francis said.

"Hi," the boy said quietly. Arthur pointed towards the kitchen and went inside.

"I'm Francis," Francis said gently. He was glad the boy was talking. "What's your name?"

"Peter," the boy answered. "Who's the other person?"

"Oh, the one who opened the door? That's my husband, Arthur," Francis explained.

"Oh, cool," Peter said and looked towards Hero, who was obediently sitting still. "Can I pet your dog?"

"Yeah," Francis said and moved aside so that Peter could get to him. "His name is Hero."

"Hi, Hero," Peter said in a baby voice that is always used on dogs. Hero licked Peter's face and the boy giggled. He scratched behind both of Hero's ears and Hero thumped his tail happily, his tongue lolled out of his mouth with a slightly dopey expression.

 Peter continued to pet Hero and looked around the room. He pointed at the pictures of Al and Matt that were scattered across the walls in the living room. "Who are they."

"Those are our sons. The one with the curl is Matthew and the other one is Alfred," Francis said. "They've both gone off to college already so they aren't here right now." The timer on the microwave beeped once and a moment later Arthur was in the living room, setting a fork and a plate of their left overs from tonight into Peter's hands. Peter hardly waited for Arthur's grip on the plate to leave before he set on the food hungrily. He moved himself to the couch while he ate.  

He was done quickly. He hadn't even taken time to breath in between bites. Arthur and Francis exchanged a concerned look.

"Peter, would you mind telling us where your parents are?" Francis asked.

Peter scowled. "I dunno. I was told that I was abandoned when I was a baby and then I was living in foster homes and moving all the time. I didn't like it so I ran away."

Arthur and Francis considered this in silence.

"How long has it been since you ran away?" Arthur asked.

Peter made a face that showed that he was thinking. "I think maybe a month."

Arthur nodded. "Alright then."

"Do you want to take a shower?" Francis asked abruptly.

Peter's eyes sparked up. "Can I really take a shower?"

"Yep, come on I'll set it up for you," Arthur said and stood up. Peter shot up and bounced behind Arthur until they got to the bathroom. He barely waited for Arthur to get out of the bathroom before getting undressed. He threw his dirty clothes out into the hallway and Arthur picked them up and brought them into the washroom, he would wait for Peter to get out of the shower before putting these in. It might have been a while since Peter had had a hot shower.

When he came back outside Francis was sitting in the same place, his brow furrowed.

"Did you see the way he was excited over a shower? No boy his age gets excited over that," Francis said.

"No, no they don't do they?" Arthur said. He chewed on one of his nails.

"I think we should keep him," Francis said. "At least until we can convince him to go back to wherever he had run away from."

Arthur nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."

Francis went to look for any of Matt or Al's clothes that Peter might use for the night. All he could find though was a few of Matt's old sweaters and some of Al's shirts but they were all far too big for Peter. Francis decided that he would just give him one of Matt's sweaters and some boxers that he had never taken out of the package since Matt was the slimmest of their sons. When Peter came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around him Francis gave him the clothing items.

When Peter dressed he wrapped himself in the sweater. He had a little fun flapping his arms around because of the too-big sleeves. Francis showed him the rooms that he would be able to sleep in. Peter chose Al's room because it was the biggest. Now Peter was nestled in the covers, wearing a sweater and a pair of boxers that were too big on him. Francis backed out of the room when Peter sighed in content and seemingly fell asleep right after.

Francis went back out to the hallway and into his room. Arthur was there, taking off his clothes and replacing them with pajamas. Francis did the same and soon they were cuddled up on the bed, thinking about what they had just gotten themselves into.

“How do you think we’re going to convince him to go back to his foster family?” Arthur asked.

“I have no idea,” Francis admitted. He sighed and pulled Arthur closer to his chest. He could feel Arthur’s breath on his collarbone as it slowly evened out. It was lulling but Francis couldn't sleep. He was too busy thinking of the child that was in their house. It made him feel like the house was less empty when he knew that there was another, possibly rowdy, kid in the house. He knew that he would have to wake up early and make more food than he would normally in the mornings now. He would have to make food for three instead of two and while that may not have been the same thing as making food for four it sure felt nice to be responsible for someone again.

He thought that he should get some sleep so he could wake up early enough to make a nice breakfast.

* * *

Francis got up early and went into the kitchen, feeling good. He cooked breakfast cheerfully and let both Peter and Arthur sleep in. It was the weekend so they didn't need to wake up for anything.

When the food was done he went to wake Peter first. Francis found that he was actually a really heavy sleeper because it took a lot of shaking and calling of his name to wake him. But when Peter was finally up he rushed to the kitchen in a groggy state. He nearly tripped a few times because of that. Francis served him a plate of the waffles he had made before going to wake Arthur, who was much easier to get up than Peter was. All it took was a light shake on his shoulder and a kiss on his lips to get him up.

Francis went back into the kitchen where a tired Arthur shuffled behind him. Arthur sat at the table and yawned. Francis brought him his plate of food and his morning tea that he couldn't wake up without. Francis sat down at the table too with his own plate. Peter was already done and was sitting at the table restlessly.

"Peter, do you want more?" Francis asked. Peter nodded and Francis smiled at him while he took his plate. He knew Peter would probably want more so he had made enough waffles just for this situation. Peter cut a big piece from his meal and munched on it cheerfully. Francis and Arthur ate their food a lot slower than Peter. They remembered that Al and Matt inhaled their food but it wasn't until they were teenagers, before that they were always outside and playing and acted like they didn't have time to eat. But Peter was eating quickly and they wondered whether or not that was just him being himself or if he hadn't had a good meal in a long time.

"Peter, when do you think you're going to go back home?" Francis asked.

Peter frowned. "I don't have a home. I'm in foster care remember? I really hated it there. I was always with some family that was way too annoying or I would be in a foster house where I had to spend time with other gross, smelly boys. I was sick and tired of it so I left."

"How old are you exactly?" Arthur asked.

"Twelve," Peter said proudly. Arthur and Francis exchanged another look and Peter scowled. "I know I'm not the oldest but I can take care of myself."

Arthur sighed. "Well no matter what age you are don't you want a home?" 

Peter shrugged. "I haven't had a home for my entire life, I think I'll be okay without one." Arthur and Francis were silent and that seemed to unsettle Peter. "Can I go play with Hero or something?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Arthur said distractedly. Peter left the table and Francis and Arthur both sighed. "What are we going to do?"

They were both silent for a while as they thought. Finally, Francis spoke. "We aren't new to the adoption process, maybe we could be the ones who can take him out of this system."

"Do you think he would be happy here?" Arthur asked.

"It's worth a chance," Francis reasoned. Arthur nodded.

"We need to make some sort of plan though, we can't just jump into this. It wouldn't be good for us and especially not for Peter if this doesn't work out," Arthur said.

"You're right," Francis agreed. So they planned. They talked about it for a good while. They were probably in the dining room for an hour before they decided that they had probably thought of every pro and con of what they were about to do.

"Alright, let's go talk to him," Arthur said, and stood up. 

Francis and Arthur trailed into the living room. Peter was there petting Hero and looking content. Hero seemed to be taking to him really well. Maybe he missed the boys just as much as they did too. When they had first left Hero had never let the front door out of his sight.

Peter looked up when they both came into the room. "You guys were talking for a long time. You don't want me to stay anymore do you?"

Francis and Arthur sat on the couch and Peter turned so he could face them.

"Actually, we were talking about the opposite," Francis said. "We'll be taking you back to your group home, yes, but that would be so we can fill out the paper work to make you our foster child."

"But I've only been here for less than a day," Peter said.

"We know," Arthur said. "Which is why we're not going to adopt you right away. If you decide that you don't like it here then we will let you go. But if you do want to stay then we will be more than happy to adopt you."

"Really?" Peter asked thickly.

"Really," Francis said. "And if they're quick about letting you move in then you can meet Matthew and Alfred next week."

Peter looked down to the floor. "You're not just saying that are you? No one's wanted to adopt me before."

"We mean it," Francis said. He and Arthur stood up. "The faster we get this done, the better right?" Peter nodded enthusiastically.

"Your clothes are all washed now," Arthur said. "They're on the bed that you slept on last night. Go get dressed and we can hit the road."

"Okay!" Peter said and went into the bedroom. Arthur and Francis also went into their room and got dressed. When everyone was done getting ready they headed to Peter's foster house.

* * *

They ended up having to wait four days before Peter was able to move in with them. Things stayed pleasantly domestic after that. They didn't overdo it with the activities that they did. Peter said that that was the downfall of most of the foster families he had stayed with. Most of the time Peter was just okay with staying in and watching a movie, he wasn't a very high maintenance child. 

Peter had also been enrolled into a school and was going to begin attending it when winter break was over.

Then Christmas break rolled around for the college students and Al returned home and Matt came a day later. Gilbert came along with Matt and stayed with them. Ivan was visiting his sisters but came to their home often on account of Al being there. Arthur and Francis decided to invite his sisters over for their Christmas dinner as well. It was going to become a little crowded this Christmas but they could live with it.

Peter took an immediate liking to Al and Matt. They got along well which was a huge relief to Francis and Arthur. Peter liked Gilbert as well, although he was slightly intimidated by Ivan but really that was a normal reaction.

When it was time for Christmas dinner it was a warm atmosphere. The table was loud and people were talking happily. The food was good and the company was good as well. Peter seemed really happy to be with so many people. He looked at home.

Two months after that, once Al and Matt and their boyfriends had gone to their own respective houses Peter had brought up adoption at the dinner table. He said that he had decided that he was going to stay.

After that they had launched themselves back into the adoption process. It took a year but finally, finally they were able to get custody of Peter. When that was done they came home, tired and ready for bed. Peter went to sleep immediately in Al's room, which had really become his at that point. Arthur and Francis went into their room and stood at the foot of their bed, smiling and touching their foreheads together like they had done so many years ago when they had first brought Al and Matt home. 

"We did it," Arthur said in a disbelieving tone.

Francis smiled even wider. "We did it."

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this is a bit choppy. My brain is a little fried, I started school recently so... yeah. But anyway, despite school I'll try and update this at least every other day. I really enjoyed writing it! Feel free to leave feedback and if you really want something in the story then go ahead and request it and I could try and put it in there! Thank you for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it! :)


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